NIGERIA UNDER UN PRESSURE OVER SAME SEX LAW, OTHERS

NIGERIA will again take center stage this week in global matters as pressure is mounting from western countries on the platform of the United Nations to force down the hands of the Federal Government on the recent Anti-Same Sex legislation, which is one important agenda of Human Rights Council, HRC, of the UN, which opened its month long meeting yesterday in Geneva.
At the HRC 25th regular session, which opened yesterday Monday March 3, 2014, the review and discussion on the Nigerian Human Rights review is agenda number 6, according to a release by the HRC.
The HRC is meeting from yesterday to March 28, 2014 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and the Nigerian agenda is not likely to be tabled until later in the month. But an advanced report by the Council’s working group noted that the issue of Same Sex legislation is one of the main issues for which the Federal Government has expressed its outright objection to the request of some western nations that the law be abolished.
In fact by the time the Working Group was compiling the report on Nigeria, the Anti-Same Sex bill had not been completely passed and signed, suggesting that the debate might even become more intense now that the bill has become law. UN member-states in the forefront of the pressure against Nigeria is the United States, Sweden, Austria and also Czech Republic.
According to the Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review on Nigeria, Nigeria was asked to “amend and review all legislation and policies, including the Same-Sex Marriage Bill, with a view to decriminalise LGBTI persons.
“Similarly the report also asked Nigeria to “revise laws discriminating against Lesbians Gays, Bisexual, Transgender Inclined, LGBTI, persons, including refraining from signing into law any new legislation criminalising LGBTIs.”
Also, a specific demand tabled by the US on the Human Rights Council for Nigeria was to “establish policies and procedures that protect the human rights and security of all Nigerians including LGBT persons, their families and associates.
The report equally asked that Nigeria must “ensure the universality of human rights, safeguarding and protecting human rights of all Nigerians irrespective of gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or religious affiliation.”
But the Federal Government, according to the Working Group, has made its outright objection known regarding the requests contained in the recommendations and conclusions of the report.
But the report also contained recommendations that Nigeria was still considering but has not agreed.
For instance, the Human Rights Council Working Group report recommended that the Federal Government “step up efforts to tackle the practice of early and forced marriages,” a demand put forward by Italy addressing the controversial and widely condemned practice of early marriage in the North including by a sitting Nigerian Senator.
That report also called for the adoption of “measures to address the high rate of early marriages among girls in the northern states of Nigeria, including a review of legislation permitting marriage of those under 18 years of age and undertaking awareness-raising programmes on the negative implications of early marriage to address the high rate of early marriages among girls in the northern states of Nigeria.”
Another recommendation that the Federal Government is yet to agree to and said to be reviewing is the request to “modify the law on oil industries to reflect the opinion of the ECOWAS court, ensuring that the new legislation includes specific protection of the rights of communities affected by the activities of these companies.”
Nigeria was also asked to amend the trade union act in “order to guarantee freedom of association and effective recognition of the rights of collective bargaining,” but the Federal Government has also not consented to this recommendation.
Other recommendations that Nigeria is yet to agree to include to abolish the death penalty and that the government should amend the law and police code that empowers the Nigeria Police Force to use lethal force outside the constraints of international law.
The recommendation regarding the police stated that Nigeria should “amend article 33 of the Nigerian Constitution and code 237 of the Police Force to ensure that the interpretation does not allow the lethal use of force,” except in circumstances enshrined in international law.
Nigeria has also been asked to introduce sex education in schools, a recommendation that the Federal Government is yet to concede.
Source: Guardian