For years, Tap Nitiative has worked to provide a platform to reawaken average Nigerian citizen to their rights, through a wide range of activities.
As part of our human rights and justice work, we have been involved in a number of services including the fight against Sexual and Gender-based violence (SGBV), abuse of civic space and the inhumane congestion of Nigeria prisons.
We have taken it upon ourselves to be actively involved in the push against SGBV by providing legal representation for victims of domestic violence, handling pro-bono rape cases of disadvantaged victims, which includes paying forensic examination and medical bills. We also represent rape survivors who suffer reprisals in defamation law suits in civil and criminal procedures, respectively. As part of our programmes to address SGBV, we also provide data for gender advocacy issues like rape and domestic violence.
We have and continued to provide strategic litigation that protects the rights of Journalists and human rights defenders who have become victims of government’s clampdown on civic space, such as the right to assemble, freedom of speech and expression.
Part of our human rights and justice work includes working with Nigeria’s Correctional Services (NCS) to decongest prisons by handling misdemeanour cases, also paying fines that have kept prisoners in prison for a long time. We are also working with the NCS to provide reforms by matching inmates with jobs.
Our work focuses on filling the gap that exists in upholding the basic fundamental rights of poor and marginalised groups and human rights defenders in Nigeria.