Lex Initiative Joins the Call to Decriminalise Drug Use and Protect Harm Reduction for Marginalised Women

On June 27, 2025, Lex Initiative proudly joined activists, advocates, and community members at the 3rd Edition of the Nigerian Drug User Community Dialogue, held virtually to commemorate the global Support. Don’t Punish Day of Action.

Hosted by the Drug Harm Reduction Advocacy Network (DHRAN), this year’s theme “Decriminalize – To Protect the Gains of Harm Reduction Amidst Dwindling Donor Funding” highlighted the urgent need to prioritise human rights, health, and care over criminalisation and stigma.

Speaking during the Dialogue, our Executive Director, Augusta Yaakugh-Shahin, shared Lex Initiative’s deep commitment to advancing justice for marginalised women who use drugs, a group often ignored in policy conversations but disproportionately affected by punitive drug laws.

“Harm reduction is a justice issue, and we cannot talk about justice without centring the experiences of women, especially poor, queer, and gender-diverse women, who use drugs and face daily threats to their freedom, dignity, and safety. At Lex Initiative, we are committed to walking alongside them.”

Our Commitments

In alignment with our mission to promote feminist legal empowerment, Lex Initiative is taking action to support marginalised women who use drugs in Nigeria through the following commitments:

  • Legal Literacy and Rights Awareness: We will offer tailored Know-Your-Rights sessions for women who use drugs, focusing on arrest procedures, discrimination, and access to legal aid.
  • Support for Survivors: We will work with partners to document cases of abuse, extortion, and sexual violence against women who use drugs, especially during arrest or detention, and provide legal support and referrals.
  • Feminist Advocacy Campaigns: We will co-create campaigns that challenge harmful narratives, amplify the lived realities of women drug users, and advocate for inclusive drug policies.
  • Leadership and Legal Empowerment: We aim to build the legal and advocacy capacity of women who use drugs, training them as peer educators, paralegals, or community organisers within their networks.
  • Solidarity and Resource Support: We will collaborate with DHRAN to mobilise resources, co-develop proposals, and link grassroots women-led harm reduction efforts to feminist and human rights funding spaces.

Why This Matters

In Nigeria, women who use drugs face unique layers of marginalisation, from gender-based violence to the loss of child custody, social exclusion, and criminal charges without due process. Many are denied access to justice simply because they are poor, stigmatised, or afraid to speak out.

At Lex Initiative, we believe that these women deserve more than punishment, they deserve protection, power, and pathways to justice.

Join Us in This Journey

We call on feminist allies, harm reduction networks, donors, and legal professionals to join us in standing with marginalised women who use drugs. If you’re interested in partnership or learning more about our work, email us at info@liradnigeria.org.

Justice begins when we choose to care. And we care deeply.

#DignityUnderLaw: Legal Protection and Recognition for All Identities Is Non-Negotiable

Every June, the global community observes Pride Month, a time to honour the lives, struggles, and victories of persons whose sexual and gender identities fall outside mainstream norms. In Nigeria, however, this observance sits uneasily against a legal backdrop that continues to deny recognition, dignity, and protection to countless individuals simply because of who they are.

At Lex Initiative, we approach Pride not as a trend or token, but as a call to action. A call to assert that legal dignity is not something to be begged for. It is not a privilege. It is a right. And it must be protected under law.

Nigeria’s 2014 Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act (SSMPA) criminalises not only same-sex marriage, but also public displays of affection between same-sex individuals, as well as any association, real or perceived, with queer identities. This law, while framed as a defence of “African values,” has functioned in reality as a state-backed licence for harassment, blackmail, arbitrary arrest, and social exclusion.

What’s even more troubling is the silence of other protective laws where marginalised groups are concerned. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 guarantees dignity (Section 34), freedom of association (Section 40), and freedom from discrimination (Section 42), yet these guarantees are unevenly applied.

In practice, queer Nigerians live without any formal legal recourse when denied housing, fired from jobs, or targeted online. For many, reporting violence to the police only leads to further danger. In other words, the law is not just failing them, it is weaponised against them.

#DignityUnderLaw Is a Matter of Justice

At Lex Initiative, our theme for Pride Month 2025, #DignityUnderLaw,  is more than a hashtag. It is a framework. It demands that we move beyond tolerance to recognition. That we interrogate not just public attitudes, but the laws that shape who is visible, who is protected, and who is left to survive in the shadows.

True legal dignity means:

  • Protection from discrimination in housing, work, education, and public services;
  • Access to justice without fear of outing, blackmail, or retaliation;
  • Constitutional recognition that every Nigerian, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression, deserves equality before the law.

This is not an imported agenda. It is a constitutional demand.

Despite the legal and social hostility, queer Nigerians are not passive victims. They are organising, advocating, writing, defending, and dreaming. We have seen courage in our legal clinics, our town halls, our youth mentorship spaces. From a lesbian student fighting housing discrimination in Abuja, to a transgender woman documenting police abuse in Port Harcourt, the movement for legal dignity is very much alive, but it needs protection.

This is why legal education, rights awareness, and ally-building are central to our Pride Month campaign. Through our #DignityUnderLaw initiative, we are:

  • Hosting legal awareness sessions on constitutional rights;
  • Sharing survivor testimonies and strategies for safety;
  • Engaging allies, lawyers, students, faith leaders, to challenge prejudice with principle.

Because Pride, for us, is not a parade. It is a legal and political act of resistance. It is a demand for visibility with rights, not pity without power.

We call on the Nigerian Bar Association, the National Human Rights Commission, and all legal practitioners to break their silence on the legal invisibility of queer Nigerians. We ask our lawmakers to reckon with the Constitution’s promises and the lived realities of those it fails to protect. And we urge our civil society allies to ensure that inclusion is not selective.

Silence, neutrality, and avoidance are no longer acceptable responses to injustice. This Pride Month, we must confront the truth that dignity under law is non-negotiable. And the work of building a just, inclusive society is not the task of queer Nigerians alone,  it is a test of our collective humanity.

About the Author
 Augusta Yaakugh-Shahin is a feminist lawyer and Executive Director of Lex Initiative for Rights Advocacy and Development (LIRAD). She leads intersectional legal advocacy focused on gender justice, access to justice, and sustainable development in Nigeria.

Democracy, Good Governance, and Inclusive Justice: Why Legal Visibility Must Include Marginalised Women

Group of Nigerian women standing in front of national flags and coat of arms, holding legal documents. They are dressed in traditional and modern attire, symbolising inclusion and legal empowerment. Banner reads: “Democracy, Good Governance, and Inclusive Justice: Why Legal Visibility Must Include Marginalised Women.”

By Lex Initiative for Rights, Advocacy and Development (LIRAD)

Every June 12, Nigeria commemorates Democracy Day, a moment to reflect on the ideals of justice, participation, and accountability that form the bedrock of democratic governance. But for many Nigerian women, particularly those living at the margins of legality and visibility, these ideals remain distant promises, not lived realities.

Democracy is not merely the right to vote or the presence of elected officials. A truly democratic society must uphold justice, transparency, and equal participation for all, including the women society often renders invisible.

At LIRAD, we believe that democracy without access to justice is exclusion by design.

While Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution promises equal protection and non-discrimination, in practice, many women remain systematically excluded from the legal and civic processes that affect their lives. From sexual and gender-based violence survivors who fear hostile legal systems, to women with disabilities denied public services, and sexual minority women facing criminalisation and stigma, democracy often fails those who are not formally protected under the law.

Legal invisibility manifests when:

  • Policies are made without the voices of grassroots women;
  • Survivors of injustice lack safe, affordable, and responsive legal recourse;
  • Laws are selectively enforced or written in language that excludes the lived realities of women.

This is not a deficit of democracy in principle, it is a failure of democratic practice.

Our Response: Building an Inclusive Justice Culture

At LIRAD, we do not accept this exclusion as inevitable. Our work is grounded in the belief that justice must be inclusive to be credible, and governance must be participatory to be legitimate.

Through our programmes, we:

  • Train women leaders across communities to understand civic processes, navigate public institutions, and hold duty-bearers accountable;
  • Facilitate policy dialogues where marginalised women can speak directly to lawmakers and influence reform agendas;
  • Create civic engagement platforms, such as town halls, strategic litigation forums, and “Justice Over Coffee” dialogues, that link grassroots realities with systemic change.

These are not token engagements. They are acts of democratic deepening, reclaiming spaces where women’s voices have been sidelined or silenced.

Democracy as a Gendered Promise

The health of any democracy can be measured by the participation of those most excluded from power. When women, especially poor, rural, displaced, or queer women , are left out of policymaking, that democracy is weakened. When they are empowered to shape the laws and institutions that govern their lives, democracy becomes a tool of justice, not merely governance.

The pathway to inclusive democracy is not paved with slogans but with systems,  systems that protect, consult, and resource women as rights-holders, leaders, and changemakers.

This Democracy Day, we reaffirm our commitment to #AccessToJustice for all, not as charity, but as a democratic necessity. We call on:

  • The Nigerian government to implement gender-responsive reforms across justice institutions;
  • Civil society and media to amplify the voices of marginalised women, especially those historically excluded from public discourse;
  • Citizens to hold space for intersectional participation, where identities do not disqualify people from justice but strengthen the diversity of the democratic voice.

Because a democracy that does not see all its people, cannot serve all its people.

At LIRAD, we are not just defending democracy. We are building it, with women at the centre.

LIRAD Joins the Call for Judicial Integrity at C.O. Anah, SAN Memorial Colloquium

LIRAD participated in the 4th C.O. Anah, SAN Memorial Colloquium on judicial independence and human rights. Key insights on reforming Nigeria’s legal system.

On 29th May 2025, the Lex Initiative for Rights Advocacy and Development (LIRAD) participated in the 4th C.O. Anah, SAN Memorial Colloquium, hosted at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Secretariat in Abuja. Themed “Independence of the Judiciary and the Guardianship of Human Rights,” the event was organised by The Anah Center for Social Justice and gathered senior judges, legal scholars, and human rights defenders to examine the crisis facing Nigeria’s judiciary.

The colloquium addressed critical issues such as political interference, unethical judicial appointments, and the growing risks faced by courageous judges. A moving testimony by Hon. Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye detailed threats to his life while presiding over a sensitive case—highlighting the personal cost of judicial integrity. Activist Aisha Yesufu and legal scholars like Prof. Chidi Odinkalu and Prof. Ernest Ojukwu issued bold calls for systemic reform, transparency, and protection for principled judges.

“Judicial independence is not just a legal principle—it is a human right. When it crumbles, so does our access to justice.” — Prof. Chidi Odinkalu

LIRAD’s participation reflects our ongoing commitment to promoting judicial accountability, protecting the rule of law, and advocating for reforms that restore public confidence in Nigeria’s justice system.

Key Insight: The judiciary must be both independent and accountable—our legal future depends on it.

📩 For legal advocacy partnerships and justice reform collaboration, reach out to us at info@liradnigeria.org

The Place: LIRAD Explores the Power of Art in Advocacy and Healing

The Place – art event in Abuja exploring gender equality and mental health through dance and painting, organised by Institut Français Nigeria

As part of our growing work in mental health and feminist advocacy, team members from Lex Initiative attended “The Place”, a powerful art event held on 20th May 2025 at the Institut Français, Abuja.

The event featured a captivating live collaboration between Bahir Sylla, a dancer from Benin Republic, and Nigerian painter Uche Uguru. Together, they used movement and visual art to tell deeply emotional stories of gender inequality and mental health challenges—shedding light on the hidden struggles women face in society.

Following the performance, a thought-provoking panel brought together the artists, psychologist Mr. Solumbo, and art therapist Miss Sarima, who discussed how creative expression can support healing, challenge stigma, and drive social change.

At LIRAD, we believe that advocacy must speak to both the mind and the heart. Art offers us a language of empathy, resistance, and transformation.

This experience inspires and strengthens our vision for an upcoming Art for Advocacy series that will centre lived experiences, emotional resilience, and intersectional justice through creative mediums.

📩 For partnership or project collaborations, reach us at info@liradnigeria.org

Beating Plastic Pollution Begins with Inclusion: The Overlooked Burden of Marginalised Women

World Environment Day 2025 | Theme: “Beat Plastic Pollution”

Plastic pollution is one of the most visible threats to our planet today. But behind the overflowing gutters, clogged drainages, and smoky piles of burning waste lies a deeper crisis, one of justice, protection, and inclusion.

For marginalised women in Nigeria, plastic pollution is not just an environmental issue. It is a daily reality shaped by systemic inequality, poor infrastructure, and legal invisibility. And if we are serious about beating plastic pollution, we must start by addressing those left out of our solutions.

Plastic Pollution Isn’t Gender-Neutral

From rural villages to overcrowded urban settlements, women, particularly those already living on the margins are disproportionately affected by plastic pollution.

In informal settlements, plastic waste blocks drainage systems, increasing the risk of flooding and waterborne diseases. When floods hit, it’s women-led households that bear the brunt of displacement, property loss, and health emergencies. In rural areas, plastics contaminate farms and water sources, placing additional labour burdens on women and girls responsible for collecting clean water.

Some women, especially those in vulnerable economic situations, work informally in waste collection and recycling, sorting through plastics without protective gear, formal recognition, or health coverage. Yet these women are rarely acknowledged in Nigeria’s environmental or labour policies.

Despite efforts to tackle plastic pollution, Nigeria’s legal and environmental frameworks have failed to account for the intersection of gender, poverty, and pollution.

Women affected by plastic waste are often:

  • Denied access to formal waste management systems,
  • Overlooked in environmental planning,
  • Excluded from climate resilience schemes,
  • And unprotected in both the law and practice.

The informal workers who collect and sort recyclables often sustaining the very circular economy we hope to build — operate without legal recognition, fair wages, or safety provisions.

If we do not recognise these gaps, any attempt to “beat plastic pollution” will only address the surface — not the systems of exclusion that keep women vulnerable.

What Lex Initiative Is Doing

At Lex Initiative, we believe that beating plastic pollution starts with legal empowerment, feminist lawyering, and intersectional policy change.

Our approach includes:

  • Delivering legal education in communities impacted by environmental neglect;
  • Supporting advocacy for the recognition and protection of informal waste workers, especially women;
  • Strengthening the capacity of feminist lawyers and paralegals to engage with environmental law;
  • Documenting the lived experiences of women affected by pollution, to shape policy that reflects reality.

We know that plastic waste is not distributed equally and neither are legal rights or political power.

Restoration Must Mean Inclusion

As the world rallies around the theme “Beat Plastic Pollution”, we must be honest: this crisis is not just about waste, but about who gets left behind when solutions are designed without them.

This World Environment Day, we call on policymakers, civil society, and the legal community to ensure that:

  • Gender and social equity are integrated into plastic regulation and waste management;
  • Marginalised women are included in decision-making and benefit from clean-up and recycling initiatives;
  • Legal frameworks protect all citizens from environmental harm, especially those at the margins.

True restoration requires recognition, representation, and rights.

A Future That Protects Everyone

Beating plastic pollution is urgent. But doing it justly is non-negotiable.

If we want clean cities, healthy rivers, and resilient communities, we must start by protecting those most exposed to pollution and least protected by the law.

Let us build a world where environmental sustainability and legal dignity walk hand in hand.

About the Author
Augusta Yaakugh-Shahin is a feminist lawyer and the Executive Director of Lex Initiative for Rights Advocacy and Development. She leads legal empowerment programmes at the intersection of gender justice, climate policy, and sustainable development.

Why Climate Justice Must Include Marginalised Women

Each year on June 5th, the world observes World Environment Day—a global reminder that the health of our planet is inextricably linked to the wellbeing of its people. This year’s theme, “Our Land. Our Future. We are #GenerationRestoration,” calls on us to reverse land degradation and heal the Earth. But for many women in Nigeria, particularly those already pushed to the margins of society, the future feels far from restored.

At Lex Initiative, we work at the intersection of law, gender justice, and sustainable development. And we see firsthand that the climate crisis is not just an environmental issue, it is a deeply gendered justice issue. As desertification creeps across the north, floods displace thousands in the south, and drought worsens food insecurity, it is marginalised women who suffer the most, yet are heard the least.

Women on the Frontlines, Yet Left Behind

From rural farmers in Benue to displaced mothers in Bayelsa, women are often the first to feel the impacts of land degradation and ecological breakdown. In many parts of Nigeria, women are responsible for securing water, firewood, and food for their households. When natural resources dry up, they walk longer distances, face greater physical strain, and become more vulnerable to gender-based violence.

Yet these same women are frequently denied land rights, excluded from environmental policymaking, and overlooked in disaster response. Their labour sustains households and communities, but their voices remain absent in the very conversations about how to restore our environment.

For women already living on the margins — widows, indigenous women, women with disabilities, and those whose sexual or gender identities fall outside mainstream norms, the risks are even more severe.These groups often lack legal recognition, formal housing, or access to public services, making them doubly vulnerable during climate disasters. When floods or fires come, many are unable to access aid, seek shelter, or even report abuses.

The Climate Change Act: A Missed Opportunity for Inclusion

Nigeria’s Climate Change Act (2021) was a landmark moment in recognising climate threats at the national level. But it falls short in one critical area: inclusion. The Act does not adequately address gender inequality, let alone the unique vulnerabilities of marginalised women.

Without explicit mandates to involve women in climate governance, or protect those most at risk of climate-induced displacement and violence, the Act risks reinforcing the same power imbalances that the climate crisis is worsening.

True restoration demands more than ecological solutions — it requires a legal and policy framework that recognises who is vulnerable, why, and what must change.

A Feminist Approach to Climate Justice

At Lex Initiative, we believe that climate action must be feminist, inclusive, and legally grounded. We are working to close the justice gap by:

  • Providing pro bono legal support to women affected by climate-related displacement and housing insecurity;
  • Training feminist lawyers and paralegals to engage in environmental governance with a gender lens;
  • Hosting community dialogues that amplify the voices of women at the grassroots and document their experiences for advocacy and litigation;
  • And pushing for a rights-based implementation of Nigeria’s climate framework that leaves no woman behind.

Hope in Community, Power in Law

Despite the challenges, women are not passive victims. Across Nigeria, they are mobilising, planting trees, saving seeds, advocating for clean water, and holding local leaders accountable. What they need is a legal system that protects their efforts, amplifies their voices, and guarantees their rights to land, safety, and participation.

On this World Environment Day, we must confront the truth: a sustainable future cannot be built on the exclusion of half the population. If we are to restore our land, we must also restore justice, by ensuring that Nigeria’s most vulnerable women are not invisible in law, policy, or practice.

Let us be a generation that restores not just ecosystems, but equity.

About the Author:
Augusta Yaakugh-Shahin is a feminist lawyer, policy advocate, and Executive Director of Lex Initiative for Rights Advocacy and Development (LIRAD), where she leads intersectional legal advocacy focused on gender justice, climate policy, and sustainable development.