Beyond Policy Promises: Assessing Legal Rights and Protection for Internally Displaced Women in Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

Internal displacement in Nigeria affects over 3.6 million people, with women comprising 55% of this population. Despite Nigeria's ratification of the Kampala Convention and adoption of a National IDP Policy, significant gaps persist between legal protections and lived realities. This phenomenological study examines how internally displaced women (IDW) in Niger State access legal rights and protection mechanisms. Through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with 20 displaced women and 2 stakeholders, conducted between July-August 2025, a documentation of systematic rights denial across four dimensions: legal invisibility (near-zero awareness of rights); service exclusion (healthcare, education, shelter inaccessible); institutional abandonment (policy-practice gaps); and political marginalization (exclusion from decision-making and justice). Drawing on human rights theory, feminist legal scholarship, and social contract frameworks, the paper argue that displaced women exist in a condition of "rightlessness” possessing legal entitlements that remain unenforceable due to institutional weakness, patriarchal governance, and state abdication of responsibility. Unlike northeastern Nigeria's insurgency-driven displacement, Niger State's crisis stems from resource-driven banditry linked to illegal mining, creating distinct dynamics requiring context-specific responses. The study contributes original empirical evidence from an under-researched context and demonstrates how multiple axes of marginalization; gender, poverty, displacement status, and ethnicity; compound to produce unique vulnerabilities. Findings underscore the urgent need for gender-responsive legal literacy programs, strengthened state-level enforcement mechanisms, and participatory governance structures including displaced women's voices.