Abstract

Human rights litigation in Nigeria has evolved over the years, resulting in constitutional amendments and enactment of statutes to protect Nigerian residents. This paper examined the extent to which class action as a mode of ensuring the protection of human rights in Nigeria has fared so far and while adopting the doctrinal research methodology it was discovered that class action is a veritable tool for the protection of human rights however, the mechanism has hitherto been underutilized due to the lack of awareness amongst litigants and inadequate legal framework for its use. In order to uplift class action to its pride of place as a veritable tool for human rights litigation, the paper recommended the expansion of the list of causes of action that can be subject of class action to include human rights litigation and the amendment of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009 to incorporate it.