Norm Localisation and the African Human Rights System: Nigeria’s Role in Shaping Regional Human Rights Jurisprudence

This dissertation investigates Nigeria's role in the localisation of international human rights norms within the African regional human rights system, examining how Nigerian jurisprudence, civil society advocacy, and government engagement with the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Court have shaped the evolution of the African human rights regime. Norm localisation theory posits that global norms are not simply transplanted into domestic or regional contexts but are actively adapted, contested, and reinterpreted by local actors in ways that reflect existing normative frameworks and power configurations. Drawing on norm localisation theory and the sociology of human rights, this study analyses Nigerian cases brought before the African Commission from 2000 to 2024, the content of Nigeria-related Commission decisions, and Nigeria's diplomatic engagement with African human rights institutions. Archival research at the African Commission in Banjul, document analysis of Nigerian jurisprudence and constitutional litigation, and interviews with human rights lawyers and Commission officials provide the primary data foundation. The dissertation advances the theoretical literature on the African human rights system by demonstrating that Nigerian civil society has been a more consequential norm entrepreneur than the Nigerian state in shaping regional human rights jurisprudence. Original arguments are developed about the conditions under which domestic civil society succeeds in bypassing resistant states to shape international norm development. Keywords: norm localisation, human rights, Nigeria, African Commission, jurisprudence.