82 Nigerian Women on Death Row, ASF France Raises Alarm Over Gender Bias in Capital Punishment

By Zainab Uzomah

Avocats Sans Frontières (ASF) France has revealed that at least 82 Nigerian women are currently on death row across correctional centres in the country, describing the figure as one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa.

The organisation warned that many of the women have been “neglected and forgotten” despite facing circumstances shaped by gender-based discrimination.

Angela Uwandu Uzoma-Iwuchukwu, the Country Director of ASF France in Nigeria, disclosed this on Wednesday at a capacity-building workshop on Mainstreaming Gender Perspective in the Use of the Death Penalty held in Abuja. The two-day session, organised as part of activities marking the 16 Days of Activism by the World Women’s Rights Organisation, focused on amplifying the voices and experiences of female inmates on death row.

Uzoma-Iwuchukwu said the criminal justice system remains deeply biased against women, noting that many of those sentenced to death are survivors of domestic violence who acted in self-defence but were not recognised as victims. “Capital punishment is often presented as neutral, but it is not,” she said.

“There are gender biases across the system—from arrest to conviction and even incarceration. These women are often tried for more than their crimes. They are tried for being women who dared to commit crimes.”

She explained that poverty remains a major barrier to justice, as most women on death row cannot afford competent legal representation. She stated that out if 55 countries in Africa, 26 have abolished the death penalty in law while 15 are applying a long term moratorium on execution, while 14 still retain the capital punishment.

She cited the case of a young woman in Katsina State sentenced to death by stoning after becoming pregnant out of wedlock—an outcome overturned on appeal following ASF France’s intervention. “The only evidence against her was her pregnancy, yet no one asked who was responsible,” she said.

Also speaking, Dr Chioma Kanu, Executive Director of the Mothers and Marginalised Advocacy Centre, warned that death sentences carry wider emotional and economic consequences for families. She noted that several inmates were convicted on the basis of coerced confessions or had spent decades awaiting justice due to missing case files or lack of legal help. “We can free an innocent prisoner, but we cannot bring back the dead,” she said, calling for a justice system that protects victims without compounding injustice.

In attendance is the Amnesty International, Global Affairs Canada, World Coalition amongst others.
ASF France urged the government to declare a moratorium on executions and ensure that experiences of gender-based violence are treated as mitigating factors during sentencing.