AN ASSESSMENT OF THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF JUVENILES IN CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES IN NIGERIA

            AN ASSESSMENT OF THE PROTECTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF JUVENILES IN                                                         CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract 

Several children  in Nigeria are faced with various challenges owing to the situation such as poverty, poor family background, lack of educational opportunities resulting to these children committing crimes at early age and facing the wrath of the law by coming in contact with the justice system in Nigeria. Justice is the first virtue of social institutions as truth is of system of thought. However, the term justice system in Nigeria has been met with various issues and criticisms.  Lack of approved institutions and facilities have resulted to incarceration of children in adult correctional facilities, thus defeating the main aim of rehabilitation for the protection of child offenders while in remand and refine the child for a positive change.  This study seeks to assess the protection of Human Rights of Juveniles in correctional facilities in Nigeria.  The objectives of the study are to examine legal frameworks that offer protection of children in correctional facilities in relation to their Human Rights, evaluate the significant effect of incarcerating children in adult prisons and critically assess the performance of the Borstal Institutions and Remand Centres Act in relation to  juvenile justice in Nigeria.  The study will adopt a doctrinal research methodology which will rely heavily on library materials to obtain information from both primary and secondary sources data. Finally, findings and recommendations will be proffered at the end of the study that will be of immense benefit to the government and  judicial system in Nigeria. 

Keywords:  Juveniles, Correctional Facilities, Incarceration, Justice System 

CHAPTERONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Nigeria is the most populous sub-Saharan country with a predominantly youthful population of less than 15 years of age . Sadly, many children in Nigeria face a life of poverty, family instability, inadequate educational opportunities as well as poor physical and mental health which hinder their ability to develop into healthy adults, like an improved quality of life or even fulfill their life aspirations . The sequence has been found to lead the children towards facing the wrath of the law by coming in contact with the justice system in Nigeria. According to Rawls, justice is the first virtue of social institutions as truth is of system of thought . On the main, the justice system employs institutions such as the police, the courts, the prisons, remand homes as well as rehabilitation centres. These agencies are the main actors in the fight against crime. According to Onimajesin, the police are responsible for detecting crimes and apprehending people who violate the criminal law, while the courts decide the guilt or innocence as well as sentence those who are convicted. The prisons or correctional institutions carry out the sentence of the court so as to rehabilitate criminals . It is noteworthy that the entire concept of justice system in Nigeria has been met with several issues and criticisms from the bar, bench and the general public. One of such has led to the 2013 grant by the centre for socio-legal studies to look into building an effective criminal justice system. Till the period of this study, the reforms are yet to be implemented, leading to the need to study the juvenile aspect of the reform.

The word “juvenile” has generated different spheres of discussions in terms of definition. According to Bamgbose, the common criterion for the definition of a juvenile is the use of age . She argues further that relying on age sometimes fail to take into consideration social, physical and psychological development of the child , while supporting her position with the case of Joseph Uwa v. State .

It is pertinent to note here that “child” and “juvenile” are used interchangeably. In fact most legal framework make use of “child”, as well, this study will employ the interchangeable use of the words. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), “a child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier” . In Nigeria, the Child’s Right Act 2003 sees a child as a person who has not attained the age of 18 years. However, according to section 2 of the Children and Young Persons Act, enacted in the Eastern, Western and Northern regions, “a child means a person under the age of 14 years while a “young person” means a person who has attained the age of 14 years and is under the age of 17 years” . According to the Penal Code, “no act is an offence which is done by a child under 17 years of age, or by a child above 7 years of age but less than 12 years of age who has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature or consequence of such act .

Children have been described as man’s most valuable natural resource, without which the human race will be extinct on the death of the last adult; hence, children signify perpetuity of human life on earth . The Blacks Law Dictionary defines a child as “progeny, offspring of parentage, unborn or recently born human being” . Case law has further helped to define “child” also, as succinctly put by justice Southin of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in R v. Sharpe , “in this judgment, when I myself use the word child, in contradistinction to when I am quoting someone else’s words, I mean those below the age of puberty. At common law, these ages were deemed to be 12 for a girl and 14 for a boy. As however, 14 is the age of consent in Canada and has been, for girls, for over one hundred years,  I define a child as anyone under the age of 14 years”. Furthermore, in Ogg-Moss v. R , Brian Dickson described a child thoroughly as, “both in common parlance and as a legal concept, the term child has two primary meanings. One refers to chronological age and is the converse of the term adult; the other refers to lineage and is the reciprocal of the term parent. A child in the first sense was defined at common law as a person under the age of 14. This definition may be modified by statutory provisions… no statutory modification, however, fixes an age higher than the age of maturity which, in Ontario, pursuant to the Age of Maturity and Accountability Act, R.S.O. 1980… is 18 years. A child in the second sense was defined at common law as the legitimate offspring of a parent, but in most jurisdictions, this definition has been amended by statute to constitute all offspring, whether legitimate or not, as the children of their natural or adoptive parents”. Overall, the 1999 Constitution defines a child as someone below the age of 18 years . For the purpose of this study, based on the provision on supremacy of the constitution , we shall restrict our definition of child to that in Section 29(4) (a) of the 1999 Constitution.

Having identified a child/juvenile, it is pertinent to explain the concept of juvenile justice. I am of the opinion that juvenile justice covers not only those in conflict with the law; it also covers juveniles who require care and protection.

The current system of juvenile justice cannot be understood without reference to Nigeria’s colonial past. However, this will be expanded in the full study. It is noteworthy here however that the British Colonial government, in order to promote and protect its economic interests, created the Nigerian criminal justice system, of which the juvenile justice system is a component. As noted by Odekunle, the entire embodiment of Nigerian justice system is a weapon of oppression .

The Borstal Institutions and Remand Centres Act (No. 38 of 1960) CAP B11, LFN 2004 establishes Borstal and remand centres as federal juvenile correctional institutions. According to the law, the purpose of the institution is to bring to bear upon the inmates every good influence which may establish in them the will to lead a good and useful life on release, and to fit him to do so by fullest development of his character, capacities and sense of personal responsibilities . In my opinion, the Act has completely spelt out the daily running of the institutions, However, the question of how practicable such routines could be related to the existing Borstal homes in Nigeria is the crux of the study. For instance, a Borstal Remand Centre was established in Kaduna, in order to foster the realization of the objectives of the reformation, there were provisions for vocational training in tailoring, photography, welding, building (masonry or bricklaying), electrical installations, etc as well as formal educational instructions up to General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level). In the words of Alemika, these facilities were fairly well managed . The Human Rights Monitor concluded that by the 1900s, the facilities were virtually non-existent . As noted by Alemika, a consistent problem encountered in the institution is overcrowding . According to him, during a 1978 study when the institution had a capacity of 120 inmates, population of inmates was 145. In 1987, the capacity remained 120 but Ahire discovered that there were 509 inmates . It can be successfully deduced that the laudable goals of the institution have become difficult to realize due to gross neglect of the institutions as well as lack of proper policy, legal and institutional framework for juvenile offender correction and juvenile delinquency prevention. Furthermore, the objectives of the institution are compromised by lack of proper planning and implementation, gross under funding, inadequate staff, in qualitative and quantitative terms and lack of necessary training facilities in the workshops and educational programs.

With the myriad of challenges confronting the Borstal institutions in Nigeria, despite the concise definition of goals and objectives in the Borstal Institutions and Remand Centres Act, it is apposite to take cues from the juvenile justice systems in some other jurisdictions such as Ghana, Sweden, Scotland and USA, to mention a few. From the available data, there is paucity of literature on the lone issue of Borstal institutions as a component of juvenile justice system in Nigeria. Hence the need to conduct this study with a view to proffering solutions to some of the overbearing challenges of the system.

1.2 Statement of the Study Problem

The juvenile justice system in Nigeria has always been an instrument of debate in academic quarters. Sadly, it has been found out that the juvenile justice system is most neglected aspect of the justice system in Nigeria. This fact is evident in the little or no mention of the subject in scholarly works as well as professional debates on matters concerning the judicial system. In various ministries of justice, juvenile justice is largely grouped with social welfare at state levels, and they are usually neglected. Despite the local and international legal frameworks for adequate enforcement, it has been concluded that juvenile justice administration is at its lowest ebb.

Furthermore, it is noteworthy that in many of the debates as well as agencies on juvenile justice, the Borstal Institutions Act, which incidentally gives a credible perspective on juvenile justice in Nigeria, is subverted. In some quarters, lawyers, writers of law, teachers and scholars of law are totally oblivious of the Borstal Institutions and Remand Centres Act. Hence, the need to conduct a critical analysis of the perspective of the Act towards ensuring a better juvenile justice in Nigeria.

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