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Paper short abstract:

The Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011 and its 2013 amendment, among other provisions of Nigeria's legal frameworks, will be examined to determine whether or not these frameworks are sufficient to prevent post-conflict rights violations committed against female survivors of Boko Haram sexual terrorism.

Paper long abstract:

There is a wealth of information regarding sexual violence, victimisation of women, and their rights during armed conflicts. However, the rights of women survivors of conflict-related sexual violence who suffer from rejection and re-victimisation are marginally discussed, despite their realities. The Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram has abducted hundreds of women and girls since utilising sexual terrorism in its terror campaign in 2013. Notable among them was the kidnapping of 276 "Chibok girls," which aroused outrage worldwide. Some women survivors of Boko Haram sexual violence have, however, been facing rejection, stigmatisation, discrimination, and even ostracization from their family members and communities. The fundamental human rights violations they suffer, no doubt, are painful reminders of the past, which they wish to forget but still haunt them. Although the legal frameworks regarding the rights of women in Nigeria are well developed, most of them cover peacetime situations without specific reference to conflict and post-conflict situations that have a bearing on women's past experiences, as in the case of Boko Haram’s victims of sexual terrorism. The provisions of Nigeria's legal frameworks, including the Terrorism Prevention Act, 2011, as amended by the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act, 2013, will be used to analyse the adequacies or otherwise of these legal frameworks in countering post-conflict rights abuses of female survivors of Boko Haram sexual terrorism. This analysis will draw from my larger fieldwork on "An Appraisal of the Legal Framework for Curbing Terrorism in Nigeria."