WRITTEN QUESTION P-3337/01

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(27 November 2001)

Subject: Nigeria

On 9 October 2001 an Islamic court in Sokoto State, in northern Nigeria, sentenced a pregnant woman to death by stoning after finding her guilty of having premarital sex. Safiya Hussaini Tungar Dudu, aged 30, is the first person to be sentenced to death since the introduction in 2000 of a strictly Islamic legal code. Judge Mohammed Bello Sanyinnawal, of the Gwadadawa Islamic Upper Court sentenced the woman to death after she had admitted having premarital sex. The court released the man she had identified as her lover on the grounds that it lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him and gave her thirty days in which to appeal. On 25 October 2001 Safiya's lawyer appealed against the sentence, asking for a stay of execution pending the decision of the Sharia Court of Appeal. On 1 November the President of the Nigerian Senate, Anyim Pius Anyim, condemned the sentence passed by the Islamic Court albeit merely with regard to the discriminatory nature of the decisions to sentence the woman and release the man, while the Federal Government endorsed the appeal against the sentence.

There have been many other cases of the Sharia being applied to premarital sex since a dozen states in the Federation decided two years ago to adopt a rigorously Islamic legal court. In January 2001 a seventeen-year old girl, Bariya Mugazu, was subjected to 100 lashes in the state of Zamfara for premarital sex after the court had rejected her disturbing account of having been raped by three suspects whom she had taken to court and who were released owing to lack of evidence.

What urgent action has the Commission taken or does it intend to take or promote, on a bilateral or multilateral basis, to prevent the execution of Safiya Hussaini Tungar Dudu and to encourage the Nigerian authorities to abolish the Sharia and strengthen the rule of law in their country? How does the Commission intend to take up at international level the practice common in many Islamic countries of carrying out in public judicial executions and other sentences such as floggings, executions and punishments often inflicted for offences which do not involved violence, especially on women, in contravention of the standards laid down by international human rights conventions?

Answer given by Mr Nielson on behalf of the Commission

(8 January 2002)

As to the specific case of Safiya Hussaini Tungar Dudu, an appeal has been lodged by the defendant, and in the meantime the sentence has been suspended by the Islamic Appeal Court of Sokoto. According to local press reports the Attorney General of the Federation has already indicated that he will not accept confirmation or application of this sentence.

The Union is strongly opposed to the use of the death penalty. In June 1998, the Union decided, as an integral part of its human rights policy, to strengthen its international activities in opposition to the death penalty.

The Commission waits the outcome of the appeal.

Moreover, the Union will continue to encourage the Government of Nigeria to abolish the death penalty, to strengthen respect of human rights, and to raise people's awareness of their legal rights. A project is currently under implementation to strengthen civil society in Northern Nigeria, and promotion of human rights and civil society are themes identified in the Country Strategy Support.

The Commission acts in several ways to end the practice in certain Islamic countries of public and particularly cruel executions.

The Union Guidelines on policy towards third countries on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which were adopted by the General Affairs Council on 9 April 2001, underline that corporal punishment is included within the scope of the references to ill-treatment. The principles set out in the Guidelines with respect to Union actions (for example, with respect to political dialogue and general and individual démarches) therefore apply to punishments such as the floggings referred to in the question.

As concerns Union action within the United Nations it should be recalled that the Union at the 57th Session of the Commission on Human Rights referred to the situation in Nigeria. In the Union statement concerning the Violation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in any part of the world, the Union expressed concern regarding the sentences of severe corporal punishment passed down under the Sharia penal code introduced by certain states in northern Nigeria.

Within the framework of Chapter B7-7 of the Community budget (the European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights) funds to combat torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in Nigeria and other third countries will continue to be available.