The ligaments of counter-terrorism regime: sexual violence and the vicarious traumatisation of female non-governmental organisation workers: evidence from Nigeria

Abstract

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The State and the Securitization of Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria

“…Because women CSOs often report cases of sexual violence and other human rights violations committed by counterterrorism security agents to international governmental organizations and NGOs, they are at odds with the government. The government believes that such reports tarnish its image globally and impinges on access to foreign military aid (Njoku, 2019, 2020a, 2020b).…”

“…However, the narrative that terrorist groups fund their organizations by using CSOs led to government suspicion of many CSOs operating in the North-East. Also, the advocacy work of CSOs attracted government's antagonism; they claim that such actions by CSOs are supportive of terrorist groups and put the country in a bad light internationally (Njoku 2017(Njoku , 2019. Thus, in response to terrorist threats, the Nigerian government enacted a series of counter-terrorism financing laws to curb the activities of terrorists (TPA and MLPA).…”

State‐oriented service‐delivery partnership with civil society organizations in the context of counter‐terrorism in Nigeria

“…Although hard and soft CTMs are advocated worldwide, their effective enforcement has been difficult due to the propensity to abuse them (Howell, 2014). In Nigeria, their implementation is fraught with cases of human rights violations such as illegal detention, torture, sexual violence and summary executions (Amnesty International, 2018;Human Rights Watch, 2016;National Human Rights Commission, 2013;Njoku, 2020aNjoku, , 2019. However, while experts and observers have documented these problems, the literature on the effects of CTMs on CSOs' capacities in mitigating the challenges of terrorism and counter-terrorism remains sparse.…”

“…Moreover, isolating human rights from counter-terrorism or counter-insurgency operations also gives rise to grievances that are frequently manipulated by terrorist or insurgent groups in order to recruit members (Njoku, 2017(Njoku, , 2019. It discourages political participation, for example in socio-political security dialogues, deliberative actions and peacebuilding processes aimed at addressing security challenges.…”

“…There have been many debates on state formulation and entrenching of service-delivery roles for civil society organizations (CSOs) 1 in the context of counter-terrorism (Bolleyer & Gauja, 2017;DeMattee, 2019;Njoku, 2020aNjoku, , 2018Njoku, , 2019Poppe & Wolff, 2017;Skokova et al, 2018;Watson & Burles, 2018), but little is known about how such partnerships work in practice. Knowledge about how CSOs make sense of their partnership with the state and its implications also remains marginal.…”