He Beat me and the State Did Nothing about It : An African Perspective on the Due Diligence Standard and State Responsibility for Domestic Violence in International Law

This article undertakes an analysis of the standard for state responsibility regarding domestic violence human rights’ violations from an African perspective via the Economic Community of West African States Community Court of Justice (ECOWAS). As the categorization of domestic violence as a human rights violation is in its infancy, the nature of the due diligence standard for state obligations on the matter is yet to be determined. The due diligence standard for domestic abuse was recognized by the court in its first domestic violence case: IHRDA & WARDC (on behalf of Mary Sunday) v The Federal Republic of Nigeria. This article starts by analyzing how state responsibility and the due diligence standard can be applied to domestic violence before using the aforementioned seminal case to analyze the jurisprudence of the ECOWAS court and its implications for the development of this area of human rights law in Africa.