Nigeria lacks political will to implement human rights agreements — Rights groups

A coalition of the Nigerian Human Rights Community has said that the Nigerian government has failed in the implementation of the 126 Universal Periodic Review, UPR recommendations because it lacks the political will to honour the agreement.They expressed worry over the inability of the government to implement the international human rights treaties it signed on behalf of the citizens.

They noted that the government has been very slow in the implementation of the recommendations it wilfully signed without duress and urged the civil society organizations and the citizens to pile pressure on the government to live up to expectations.

The group made the observation at a sensitization workshop organised by the Partnership for Justice to assess the level of implementation of the UPR recommendations in Nigeria held in Abuja.

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights of all    193 UN member states established in 2006 by the UN General Assembly in resolution 60/251.

It is a state-driven process under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their country and to fulfil their human rights obligations.

The coordinator of the Coalition of UPR in Nigeria,    Ivy Bassey Ofili, deplored the slow implementation process of the UPR in Nigeria by government and also blamed it on poor awareness on the part of citizens.

Ofili said it is expected that each member state sends a review to the UN periodically stating steps and how far they have been able to comply but expressed dismay that Nigeria has not sent a midterm review for the past three circles, wondering why it could take the country so long to do the needful