(JollofNews) – The UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group will tomorrow start examining the human rights record of the Gambia under the APRC regime of President Yahya Jammeh.
The Gambia is one of the 14 countries to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 27 October to 7 November in Geneva.
It will be the second review of the Gambia’s rights record since February 2010 and the working group will look at information provided by the Gambia, information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities and information from other stakeholders including national human rights institutions and non-governmental organisations.
Among the issues raised in the national report and through advanced questions received are: equitable access to education; poverty alleviation; gender-based violence; maternal health and infant mortality; women and children’s rights; female genital mutilation; the rights of persons with disabilities; judicial reforms and access to justice; human trafficking; freedom of speech, expression and assembly; combating torture and arbitrary or summary executions; and LGBTI rights.
The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed during the first UPR cycle and 98 thus far during the second cycle.
The second review of States aims to highlight human rights developments in the country since its first review and provides an opportunity for States under review to spell out steps taken to implement recommendations posed during their first reviews.
