The NGO Joint Memorandum
submitted to the Nigerian High Commissioner His Excellency Ibrahim Yarima
Abdullahi
on September 3, 2002
at the Nigerian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur
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Your Excellency,
We, the undersigned,
wish to express our grave concern at two recent cases of death sentence
by stoning involving a Nigerian woman and couple, which are in violation
of human rights, women’s rights and
individual freedom. In the first incident,
the Islamic high court in the northern Nigerian town of Funtua, Katsina
State upheld on August 19, 2002 the stoning sentence imposed on Amina
Lawal, 31, a single mother, for having sex outside of marriage. In the space of a
week, on August 26, 2002, another Islamic court in the central town of
New Gawu sentenced a couple, Ahmadu Ibrahim and Fatima Usman, both 30,
to death by stoning for having an affair. The court judgments
are incompatible with established international norms of human rights.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the
Convention against Torture (both of which Nigeria is a state party)
prohibits the practice of stoning to death, which is considered as a
cruel form of torture. The decisions are also
contrary to the Nigerian constitution as well as Nigeria’s legal
obligations under international human rights law and the African Charter
for Human and People Rights. Under the Nigerian constitution, right to
life, freedom from torture and cruel inhuman and degrading punishments
and the right to fair trial are guaranteed. Due to stoning being a
particularly inhumane form of execution that prolongs the agony of the
condemned person, many human rights groups, both local and
international, have strongly objected to any cases of stoning. Moreover, many women's
rights activists consider stoning as a harsh and degrading punishment
that particularly singles out women. Not only does stoning require
burying a woman deeper than a man (a practice proponents say is to
protect the woman's bosom), it is also used against women more often
than against men. The fact that
execution by stoning to death is still being practised in a 21st century modern
society is clearly a matter of serious concern, both to Malaysians as
well as the international community. We hereby
urge the Nigerian government to intervene in the plight of the three
Nigerians, Ibrahim, Usman and Lawal to rescue them from such a horrific
fate as stoning in line with its international and human rights
obligations. Endorsed by,
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