Notable international human rights lawyer, Arise News (Legal) Analyst and Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER), Frank Tietie has been appointed by the Federal Government of Nigeria to the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the 4th Review Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Nigeria’s human rights situation by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Tietie would serve in the Committee as the representative of the Nigerian NGO/CSO community along with Olawale Fapohunda, SAN, the co-chair of the NBA Human Rights Institute, to represent the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
Inaugurating the IMC on Friday 2nd of September 2022 in Abuja, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) charged the newly appointed members of the Committee to, amongst other terms of reference, assess the level of implementation of the accepted recommendations made to Nigeria by the UN Human Rights Council during the 3rd Review Cycle and take appropriate steps towards their implementation. Dr Habiba Lawal, representing the SGF, emphasised that the entire UPR process’s goal is to improve Nigeria’s human rights situation.
The Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the 4th Review Cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is co-chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice/Solicitor-General of the Federation, Beatrice Jedy-Agba, OON and the Permanent Secretary, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Gabriel Aduda.
Other members of the Committee include Tony Ojukwu, SAN, Executive Secretary of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and other representatives of key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government with the Co-Secretaries of the Committee as Princess Frank-Chukwuani, Abdulrahman A. Yakubu and Gutti Abdulhamid, respectively of the Federal Ministry of Justice, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
Reacting to his appointment, Frank Tietie praised President Buhari for his strong commitment to honouring Nigeria’s human rights obligations to the international community. According to him, “despite the huge challenges in enforcing human rights standards in Nigeria, with the kind of commitment that has been shown so far by the administration of President Buhari on issues of human rights and particularly on the independence of the National Human Rights Commissions (NHRC), we have witnessed a significant improvement in the human rights situation in Nigeria”. He further said CASER values the UPR process as the essential machinery for making institutional progress in the achievement of globally accepted human standards in any modern country such as Nigeria. He promised to give his best to the assignment, which he considered a call to national service.
