Baobab For Women's Human Rights, Lagos, Nigeria, West Africa

BAOBAB For Women's Human Rights is a not for profit, non-governmental women's human rights organization, which focuses on women's legal rights issues under the three (3) systems of law - customary, statutory and religious laws in Nigeria.

The organization evolved from an ad hoc group of activists, social scientists, lawyers, and specialists in Muslim laws and Arabic who were responsible for executing the Women and Laws Nigeria project, under the auspices of the International Solidarity Network of Women Living Under Muslim Laws from 1993 to 1996.

This three-year multi disciplinary research project on women's legal rights generated a wealth of data which, in order to be efficiently utilized, needed an organizational structure from which outreach work could be planned and executed in the states under study. In 1996, BAOBAB as presently constituted formally came into being.

BAOBAB operates from a national office in Lagos and with outreach teams in 14 states across Nigeria. These are: Adamawa, Borno, Edo, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Taraba and Zamfara. The organization works with women, legal and paralegal professionals, human rights NGOs and members of the general public.

BAOBAB's stated mission is "to promote women's human rights principally via improving knowledge, exercise and development of rights under religious laws, customary laws and statutory laws." We believe our activities during the past few years illustrate our commitment to this mission.