For several decades, Canada and Canadians have been deeply involved in human rights development in Nigeria (Africa’s most important socio-economic and political player). For example, Canada and Canadians have funded or supported many constitution-making, electoral reform and human rights efforts in Nigeria. These engagements, the anecdotal evidence suggests, have played an important role in Nigeria. Yet, the nature, attainments, problems and prospects of such Canadian/Nigeria human rights engagements have not been as rigorously studied and widely understood in the scholarly (as opposed to merely NGO and government) literature as might be expected. This is so even though Nigeria is now by far Africa’s largest and most important political economy.

In the light of this significant gap in knowledge and the need to advance the process of closing it that this planned scholarly event was proposed. The event which is being convened by Professor Obiora Okafor, the University Chair in International and Transnational Law at York University, on behalf of Osgoode and NIALS, is an interdisciplinary international workshop on “Canadian/Nigerian Human Rights Engagements: A Critical Assessment”. This workshop, the necessary follow up from the first one held in May 2014 at the Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada, discussed and fine-tuned draft papers detailing the findings and conclusions of this multi-year research and dissemination project. It held in Abuja, Nigeria from 1-2 June 2015.

Four main deliverables merged from the workshop presentations and conversations. These are: a special issue in an international journal; a policy brief document for the practitioner community; a media brief document for the circulation to the print and electronic media, and through social media; and a project web portal.

The workshop attracted both established and junior scholars confirming their participation, alongside graduate students and practitioners. Canadian scholars/students from a diversity of universities in the country and expert in a range of disciplines such as law, history, political science, and development studies are expected to participate. So are participants from NIALS and some universities in Nigeria and some other countries.