UNIFEM urges protection of rights of all citizens

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) has appealed to the Nigerian government to honour its moral and legal obligations to protect the rights and lives of all its citizens - starting with Amina Lawal, a woman sentenced to death by stoning after her conviction on adultery charges. In a news release on Tuesday, UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer expressed horror at the sentence and noted that the Nigerian constitution outlawed punishments such as stonning, beheadings and amputations. Nigeria was party to all international conventions on human rights, she added. According to Heyzer, nation states had the power to enforce their constitutions and the responsibility to protect their citizens, including "those like Amina who are poor, uneducated and female". "After three decades of struggle to recognise women's rights as human rights, we acknowledge the complicated interplay of cultural values and power relations involved in the determination of who defines what is or is not a right," Heyzer said. "The rights of those who are poor or of lower social standing do not count less than those who are rich or high-born. The rights of women cannot be valued less than the rights of men. And states are obligated to protect the rights of everyone equally," she added. Lawal was first sentenced to death on adultery charges in the small town of Bakori in March, under the Islamic or Shari'ah legal code, after giving birth to a child outside marriage. A man she said had fathered the baby was discharged for lack of evidence. An Upper Shari'ah Court in the town of Funtua upheld the sentence last week. Lawal's lawyers have said they will appeal the judgement. President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Saturday he expected the judiciary to overturn the death sentence standing over Lawal. "I do sincerely hope that we will get through it, that Amina will not die," Obasanjo told reporters in the presidential residence in Abuja. "But if for any reason she is killed, I will weep for Amina and her family, I will weep for myself, and I will weep for Nigeria." [The full statement can be found at: http://www.unifem.undp.org/]