in Abuja

An international civil society organisation under the aegis of Global Rights has tasked public and corporate organisations in the country to adhere to the fundamentals of human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) in their operations in Nigeria.

The CSO stressed that more than nine million people die prematurely annually due to exposure to pollution and toxic substances. 

Global Rights attributed this data to the outcome of research conducted in 2024 under the sponsorship of the Africa Coalition for Corporate Accountability (ACCA).

Speaking during a one-day workshop for journalists on human rights and environmental due diligence in Abuja, the Executive Director of Global Rights, Abiodun Baiyewu, revealed that many organisations operating in Nigeria engage in human rights abuses and neglect of their host communities. 

She, however, lamented that the government always turns a deaf ear to monitoring the operations of these firms.

To this end, many businesses are not held accountable for their actions, especially as they affect human rights, she stressed. 

Stating that many communities are suffering from environmental pollution as a result of weaknesses in policy implementation, the executive director encouraged the government and Nigerians to carry out environmental due diligence assessments on corporate organisations to ascertain if they are upholding human rights and environmental due diligence.

Presenting the HREDD Policy Brief, Baiyewu said that improving Human Rights Due Diligence practices in Nigeria requires addressing structural, regulatory, and operational challenges while leveraging local contexts and international best practices.

To address the foregoing anomalies, the executive director recommended the following: “Legal reforms, capacity building, multi-stakeholder collaboration, incentives for compliance, and the use of technology.”

She said that human rights and environmental due diligence equips enterprises with the skill-set to identify the information they need to understand their specific human rights risks as well as the actions they need to take to prevent and mitigate them.

The co-chair of the Nigeria Working Group (NWG) and Executive Director of Lite-Africa, Dr. Joel Bisina, who was represented by the Financial/Admin Manager of Lite-Africa, Tolu Oyero, said that CSOs and journalists must work together to uphold HREDD and prevent human rights abuses.