The Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA) is greatly concerned with the growing number of pregnant women and nursing mothers in prison custody across Nigeria, and wishes to use the occasion of the International Human Rights Day being marked today to call for necessary amendments in Nigeria’s penal laws to enable the law courts to use alternatives to imprisonment in passing sentences on women that have been convicted of crimes. This way pregnant women and nursing mothers could either have their sentences suspended until they gave birth and their babies are weaned or be sentenced to community services for a period of time.

Current statistics, conservatively, put the number of innocent babies/children serving prison terms with their mothers in the 234 prisons across Nigeria at sixty-nine (69). This situation is not only unjust and illegal but also against the letters and principles of all international human rights instruments that Nigeria is a signatory to, including: the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) 1948, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination (CAAD), Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Child Rights Convention (CRC) which Nigeria has domesticated as Child Rights Act.

PRAWA notes that the Administration of Criminal Justice (AJC) Bill currently before the National Assembly has made extensive provisions for alternatives to imprisonment to become part of Nigeria’s criminal justice system. We therefore call on Nigeria’s National Assembly to expedite action on the AJC Bill and stop Nigeria’s current practice of punishing innocent children whose mothers are in conflict with the law.

Yinka Lawal Esq.
Deputy Director
PRAWA

www.prawa.org