NHRC Advocates for Public Health Approach to Drug Laws, Convenes Community Engagement on Human Rights

By Toffa Momoh | Abuja

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has announced the convening of a strategic three-day Community Engagement Workshop focused on Drug Law Reform, Human Rights and Public Health, taking place this week in Edo State.

Organized in collaboration with the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) under the Global Fund Grant Cycle 7 (GC7), the intervention forms a critical component of Nigeria’s broader national response to reduce human rights-related barriers to HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) services.

Currently, the enforcement framework governing drug control in Nigeria frequently brings Persons Who Use Drugs (PWUD) into conflict with the criminal justice system. This criminalization drives vulnerable populations underground, fuelling stigma, exposing them to human rights abuses, and severely limiting their access to life-saving HIV and TB healthcare.

Speaking on the initiative, the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Dr. Tony Ojukwu, OFR, SAN, stated: “Drug dependence is fundamentally a public health issue, not merely a criminal one. When our laws fail to clearly distinguish between a person struggling with substance use and a drug trafficker, we leave room for arbitrary enforcement and the violation of fundamental human rights. The NHRC is committed to ensuring that our legal frameworks stretch out a hand of care and rehabilitation to vulnerable populations, rather than pushing them further into the shadows.”

A key focus of the three-day engagement is to support evidence-based policy reform, particularly the introduction of Threshold-Based Drug Scheduling to the NDLEA Act. This reform seeks to create a clear, statutory distinction between drug possession for personal use and drug trafficking, ensuring a proportionate, rights-respecting approach to drug control.
The workshop brings together approximately 45 participants, including representatives of PWUD networks, civil society organizations, human rights defenders, and relevant institutional stakeholders.

In strict recognition of the intersecting vulnerabilities affecting women, the NHRC has mandated a minimum of 40% female participation, incorporating dedicated safe-space sessions designed to capture the specific human rights violations and advocacy priorities of women who use drugs.

The methodology of the engagement is trauma-informed, consent-based, and strictly non-attributive, ensuring the utmost safety, dignity, and confidentiality of all participants.
Outputs from this engagement will directly feed into ongoing national policy discussions with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the Federal Ministry of Health, and the National Assembly, as part of a broader effort to advance humane and evidence-based drug policy reform in Nigeria.

The NHRC calls on stakeholders across government, civil society, development partners, and the media to support constructive engagement towards a more inclusive and public health-oriented justice framework.