"Human Rights in Nigerian Correctional Institutions: The Place of Social Workers"

Abstract

Issues on human rights especially in correctional institutions have become the focus of international programs, policy makers, the general populace, researchers and conferences aimed at ensuring effective monitoring of its abuses. Human rights protect the essential attributes of human beings: needs, capacities and interests that if guaranteed respect their dignity as persons and if violated results in lives of desperation and diminishment. This study examines human rights in Nigeria correctional institutions. It also identified the roles of social workers in challenging injustice and ensuring that the rights of offenders are upheld. Worried by the state of human rights in our correctional institutions, the paper attempts to investigate the inmates’ rights, human rights and correctional practices and seeks to proffer ways by which social workers can enhance human rights in correctional institutions. Secondary source of data collection was utilized in the study. Documents from international and national agencies as well as textbooks and journal articles were employed. Furthermore, the paper recommends creation of awareness on the services of social workers in enhancing human rights in correctional institutions.