Across Nigeria, sexual minorities face layered vulnerabilities driven by stigma, criminalisation, discrimination and limited access to health and justice. These barriers undermine human rights, and they weaken national efforts to end HIV and achieve equitable sexual and reproductive health.
This project responded by putting human rights, community leadership and evidence-based advocacy at the centre of the HIV and SRHR response. Funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) and led nationally by Lawyers Alert, it ran in 2025 in Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau States, with ORHI as the lead implementing community-based organisation in Nasarawa.
Our approach
The project tackles both immediate risks and the structural conditions behind them. It strengthens small and medium community organisations and leaders to engage confidently in advocacy, documentation and rights-based action.
HIV vulnerability is bound up with legal exclusion, fear of arrest or violence and social marginalisation. Where laws fail to protect people, stigma thrives, violations go unreported and access to health care and justice is restricted.
Building capacity for advocacy
Lawyers Alert equips community organisations and leaders with the skills, tools and legal literacy for evidence-based advocacy: human rights documentation, strategic litigation pathways, engagement with duty bearers, and using data to influence policy and public debate.
Reducing violations and vulnerability
Through community engagement, rights awareness and access to legal support, people learn to recognise violations, seek redress and challenge harmful practices. Safer environments mean people are more likely to use HIV prevention, testing, treatment and SRHR services.
ORHI’s role in Nasarawa
ORHI turns the project’s framework into practical, community-driven action: strengthening grassroots advocacy, supporting rights documentation, mentoring emerging leaders, and facilitating safer access to health and legal services, in close coordination with legal and health partners.
Ending HIV in Nigeria is inseparable from protecting the dignity, rights and freedoms of all people.
What the programme delivers
- Training on human rights documentation and legal literacy
- Mentoring emerging community leaders
- Access to legal support and safer routes to health services
- Evidence-based advocacy with duty bearers
