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THISDAY NEWSPAPERS ARTICLES
The United Nations’ Universal Periodic
Review mechanism: Appraising Nigeria’s Human
Rights Situation -- Tuesday May 27, 2008
On March 15 2006, the UN General Assembly
adopted Resolution 60/251 which
established and mandated the Human Rights
Council (the Council) to “undertake a
universal periodic review, based on
objective and reliable information, of the
fulfillment by each state of its human
rights obligations and commitments….” In
response to this mandate,
the Council at
its fifth session on June 18, 2007 adopted
Resolution 5/1, which set out in
detail the modalities relating to the basis
of the review, the principles and objectives
to be followed, the periodicity and order of
review of countries, process and modalities,
as well as the outcome and the follow-up to
the review.
A cardinal value that the creation of the
Human Rights Council reinforces is the
requirement that states commit to the
maintenance of an open door policy on human
rights. The UPR is essentially an offshoot
of this requirement. It forms part of a
comprehensive response to the inabilities of
the erstwhile UN human rights system to
redress many situations of gross and
systemic violations of human rights in the
world. It represents a historic archetypal
shift from the inadequacies of the erstwhile
system and, for the first time, creates a
common mechanism for reviewing the human
rights records of all UN member states,
using cooperative mechanisms that engender
interactive dialogue, the participation of
the state concerned and consideration for
its capacity-building needs.
Importantly, UPR incorporates the concept of
“peer review” among states and broadens the
space for participation. Under Resolution
60/251, the Council is required to consider
a variety of information that includes
reports submitted by states to treaty bodies
on the fulfillment of their human rights
obligations under ratified treaties;
concluding observations and recommendations
made by treaty bodies; communications sent
by special procedures as well as reports on
country missions, if any, to the State;
reports prepared by any other UN agency on
the human rights situation in the State and
reports and information from National
Human Rights Institutions and
Non-Governmental Organizations.
As one of the 47 members presently on the
council, Nigeria has, under the UPR
mechanism, participated in the review of
other state member’s human rights
commitments. Ordinarily, a country that sits
in review of the human rights commitments of
other countries ought to demonstrate
unflinching regard and commitment to
validating human rights. This is hardly the
case with Nigeria. While it may be said
that the reinstatement of democracy has
opened the space for broader discourse on
human rights issues in the country, it is
nevertheless true that human rights
violations have continued in some of the
most egregious forms, and in dimensions that
altogether threaten our collective
aspirations for a democratic society that
guarantees individual rights and human
dignity. Largely, we have, as a nation,
continued to witness a culture of official
tolerance for the institutional dysfunctions
that perpetuate human rights abuses.
Nigeria’s real commitment to the essence of
the periodic review, and to maintaining an
open door policy on human rights issues will
come under scrutiny when her human rights
record undergoes evaluation at the 4th
periodic review in 2009, the year Nigeria’s
membership of the Council also terminates.
Preparing Nigeria’s response to the review
will certainly invoke different shades of
interest. There are bound to be conflicting
reports on the human rights situation in
Nigeria, with some asserting or refuting the
gravity of the human rights situation in the
country. There can however be no denying
that the human rights situation is yet
grave. It is therefore important that we
all, irrespective of the interests we
represent, see the review as an opportunity
for constructive engagement between all
stakeholders, for the espousal of genuine
intentions to redress human rights
violations, and the initiation of lasting
institutional reforms that would strengthen
domestic mechanisms for protecting human
rights.
Constitutional Rights Project welcomes this
opportunity. We believe that Nigeria’s
impending review at the 4th
session of the UPR mechanism should be seen
as part of a process that brings all parties
together to take a dispassionate appraisal
of Nigeria’s human rights situation and to
collaborate toward redressing the failures
that the review is sure to unveil.
Constitutional Rights Project (CRP) |
