Health and social consequences of human rights violations in Rural Nigeria

Abstract

The violation of human rights is replete in many African communities. On a daily basis, people face the dilemma of distinguishing between what is right or wrong and mainly depend on prosecutors to determine when an act is legal or unconstitutional. Based on this, the rights of Africans are violated. The violations of human rights with little or no redress mechanisms has several consequences on victims. Violation makes life unbearably hard; this impacts adversely on health and social wellbeing. Although many researchers have examined human rights violations, few have explored its health consequences on vulnerable citizens. Thus, this study examined human rights violations and their social/health consequences on victims in Nigeria. Explanation of core variables was anchored on social action theory and health belief model. Data were generated with questionnaires as well as indepth and key informant interviews. Content and chi-square test were used in analysing the data obtained in the course of the study. Responses from 67% of the respondents revealed that violation induces health challenges ranging from psychosomatic dissonance to anxiety, psychometric disturbances, psychosis, insomnia, delusion, suspicion paranoia, depression, high blood pressure, hypertension, disorientation, and stroke. Those who seek redress are embattled with difficult terrain. As such, victims become stoic and unpatriotic, often exhibiting unwholesome behaviours. With poor redress mechanisms, attack on institutions/authorities and loss of lives have increased. Based on these outcomes, this study recommends that supremacy of the constitution should be upheld and there should be massive socialization through educational curriculum modelling to create awareness.

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“…Lastly, politics has always been a field of paramount relevance in response to emerging societal collapses, government forms and widespread questioning of political systems’ legitimacy, which in a decisive manner affect our lives. Recently, the ISSJ has published several critically acclaimed articles on a wide range of subjects and themes, such as prisons and terrorism, group identity (Marone, 2023), political regimes (Vercesi, 2022), democracy and the health and social outcomes of human rights violations (Musabaeva et al., 2022; Sandra, 2022).…”