NHRC, AccountabilityLab Seek Coordinated Response to Digital Rights Violations

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and AccountabilityLab Nigeria have called for greater collaboration and coordinated mechanisms to address digital rights violations and restore public confidence in access to justice. This call was made during a multistakeholder meeting held to discuss the gaps in the response to rights abuses in Nigeria’s digital space.

NHRC's Executive Secretary, Chief Tony Ojukwu, highlighted the increasing significance of Nigeria’s digital ecosystem for civic engagement, investigative journalism, democratic dialogue, and constitutional freedoms. However, he expressed concern over the fragmented responses to digital rights violations, noting that existing mechanisms were often not sufficiently coordinated.

Ojukwu emphasized that while civil society organizations document abuses, the media expose systemic violations, and legal practitioners initiate legal proceedings, these responses often lack clear referral pathways, adequate procedures for preserving digital evidence, and timely handling of high-stakes cases.

The NHRC assured its readiness to serve as a central hub for the proposed collaborative framework but stressed that protecting digital rights required cooperation from law enforcement agencies, the judiciary, regulatory authorities, civil society organizations, technology platforms, and telecommunications providers. Ojukwu urged stakeholders to ensure that government actions related to cybercrime, national security, and online harms remained consistent with constitutional safeguards, due process, and international human rights obligations.

Odeh Friday, Country Director of AccountabilityLab Nigeria, pointed out that while the organization had received numerous complaints of human rights violations, many failed to progress to meaningful resolution. This situation has contributed to a growing reluctance among Nigerians to report such violations, fearing they would not receive justice. Friday explained the need for stronger partnerships to restore public confidence in complaint-handling mechanisms.

The workshop aimed to establish practical institutional arrangements, including standardizing complaint-intake mechanisms, defining referral pathways, establishing fast-track channels for urgent or high-risk threats, creating uniform criteria for documenting and preserving digital evidence, safeguarding complainants, victims, and whistleblowers against reprisals, and ensuring secure and privacy-compliant information sharing.

Additional priority areas include clear triggers for statutory, judicial, or public-interest action and leveraging trends in reported violations to inform legislative and policy reforms.

The NHRC also proposed integrating the Ripoti platform into the coordinated response architecture, not just as a complaint documentation tool but as a transition mechanism from reporting to referral, referral to remedy, and individual cases to broader structural reforms. The success of this initiative would be measured by tangible outcomes such as victims obtaining swift, safe, and effective justice, institutions working seamlessly together, and recurring violations leading to lasting reforms.