What is Minority Rights

In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed its first resolution recognizing LGBT rights, following which the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report documenting violations of the rights of LGBT people, including hate crimes, criminalization of homosexual activity, and discrimination. There are reports of human rights violations based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity in Nigeria. In 2018, the Initiative for Equal Rights and other organizations' reports show 213 human rights violations based on real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity in Nigeria. Using a doctrinal method of analyses, the chapter examines critically the human rights provisions of the Nigerian law to determine whether or not sexual minority rights are recognised. The chapter concludes on the note that the Nigerian government has overstepped in regulating what transpires in the private affairs of two consenting adults of the same sex. It is the recommendation of the chapter that same sex sexual conduct should be decriminalised.