Torture -1
Hello to the beautiful people I love having here!
In our previous discussion , we looked at the right to dignity of human person, contained in section 34 of the Nigerian Constitution and we learnt quite a lot (you can testify to that!).
To recap briefly, we learnt that as human beings, we have a right to be respected and treated properly and not be subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment such as torture, slavery , servitude e.t.c
If you’ve not read the previous article, It would be better if you did so you would understand this article more.
We’d be focusing on torture for a while. Why? Because the Nigerian Constitution did well by providing that nobody should be subjected to torture, but there’s a gap- It fails to explictly explain what torture is.
It’s one thing to know that you should not be subjected to torture, it’s another thing to know what torture means, in order to consciously protect ourselves from being subjected to torture and also to rightly seek for a remedy when an act of torture has occured.
It’s impossible to say you’ve been tortured when you don’t know what torture is and when it has occured.
But I’m here to help!
So then what is torture?
What does it mean for us to be tortured under the Nigerian Law?
What are the remedies available to an individual who has been tortured?
These questions would be answered with the aid of the ANTI TOTURE ACT 2017.
Note: Henceforth, when I make use the word "Act" I’m referring to the Anti Torture Act 2017.
Beginning at the first section 1 of the Act, this section makes it a duty for the government to ensure the right of all persons, including suspects, detainees and prisoners are respected at all times and that no person under investigation or held in custody is subjected to physical harm, violence, threat or intimidation or any act that would take away his free will.
I particularly love this section and would love for it to be really publicised, because it is no news that whososever goes into a prison (either as a suspect, detainee or prisoner) would never return the same.
They always return with either a physical harm or mental harm or both! Which is very sad and this is because they don’t know that their right to dignity as a human person is being breached.
Section 34 of the Nigerian Constitution only provides that the court can take this right away where they pronounce a sentence beacuse of the unlawful action of an individual. That’s all from the court.
However, where the person is serving his sentence and right there in the prison the individual is being subjected to physical or mental harm which is not an order from the court, then that is a different thing.
And in this case, the person’s right to dignity as a human person is clearly being breached. But sadly, he doesn’t know!
In order to aid a concise work where we won’t feel bored beacuse of the length, I’d be pausing here
See you next time!
Thank you for reading this article, I know you found this really helpful so do well to share to lots, lots of people.
The goal is to ensure that majority of the Nigerian citizens are aware of these rights.
Let’s make that happen together!
