This report is a compendium of reported violations of sexual minorities in Nigeria between April 2017 to March 2018, with a particular focus on men who have sex with men (MSM). The data used in this report is drawn from inputs made into the online rights violation documentation tool developed by Lawyers Alert (http://colahr.org/lawyersalert/index.php ). This tool is situated on the website of the Coalition of Lawyers for Human Rights (COLaHR), 

BACKGROUND: Lawyers Alert's involvement with grass-root women-focused CSOs/leaders working on GBV reveals that women who are violated hardly are knowledgeable on where to seek help and find succor with particular emphasis on the type of violation suffered. Even amongst organizations offering remedial services, there is insufficient knowledge of who is offering what services, leading sometimes to non-satisfactory delivery of services, especially where the services sought are not in that organizations’ remit.

PREFACE

“Ignorance”, they say, “is the greatest weapon of tyranny”. This saying underscores the importance of knowledge in any society. Particularly in a democracy, every citizen needs to understand basic legal issues to help him/her participate meaningfully in the affairs of the state. Thus, the need for legal literacy cannot in any way be overemphasized.

Foreword

One of the key interventions of Lawyers Alert is free legal assistance to victims of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights violations. This service is rendered specifically to vulnerable groups. Vulnerable groups in this instance are women and girls suffering violence,