Nigeria and Mexico were reviewed during the 17th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group of the Human Rights Council.

With many troubling human rights issues to be raised, torture and ill-treatment did not feature as prominently as it should have. Nevertheless, 18 states included torture and ill-treatment in their recommendations to Nigeria, and we are pleased to note that most of the key issues advocated by an IRCT member (PRAWA) prior to the review were addressed with quality recommendations.

Most recommendations to Mexico were around the issues of protection of journalists and human rights defenders, “femicide”, the use of military justice in human rights cases and ensuring impartiality in investigations of human rights violations. The highly problematic situation of torture and ill-treatment throughout the Mexican justice system received very little attention during the review.

The recommendations to Nigeria included:

• Effective investigations of torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial executions with many states recommending an end to impunity and improved human rights education to deal with this issue;
• Effectively addressing the substandard conditions of detention including by allowing effective access to independent monitors such as the National Preventive Mechanism. This appeared to reflect continuous concerns from the last UPR and reports by Special Procedures and human rights NGOs illustrating the massive scale of the problem in Nigeria;
• The need to ensure rehabilitation services for victims of torture and ill-treatment and to amend mental health laws to bring them in line with international standards including by ending the practice of arbitrary detention of persons alleged to be or in fact are mentally disabled. These are concerning issues in Nigeria, and the fact that only Sweden addressed it demonstrates their continuous underexposure.

A few states made recommendations to Mexico on some of the more pertinent issues such as:

• Implementation of all recommendations made by the UN Committee against Torture in November 2012;
• Full implementation of the Istanbul Protocol in all Mexican states including training of health professionals and ensuring full independence in investigations. This would work towards ensuring that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment are fully investigated, including a forensic medical/psychological examination by qualified health professionals;
• End the “arraigo” practice which greatly increases the risk of torture and ill-treatment during detention due to the absence on basic safeguards and transparency.

The IRCT commends the governments of Germany, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden and the USA for posing advance questions to raise issues about torture, ill-treatment and extrajudicial executions in Nigeria and the obligation to bring perpetrators to justice; and the governments of Sweden, Austria and Germany for their concrete and focused recommendations to Mexico in relation to torture and ill-treatment. These included full implementation of the Istanbul Protocol in all Mexican states and the implementation of all CAT recommendations.

It is worth highlighting the recommendations made by Sweden to Nigeria to ensure rehabilitation of victims of torture and ill-treatment and to reform mental health laws to put them in line with international standards. These recommendations addressed two very specific problems in Nigeria — the total absence of state-funded rehabilitation services, as required under UNCAT Article 14, and the common practice of detaining undesired individuals solely based on claims of mental illness. If accepted, recommendations like these will provide significant support to those working to further these issues in Nigeria.

The IRCT welcomes the constructive approach taken by the governments of Nigeria and Mexico. The Nigerian delegation tried to answer to the main topics — extrajudicial executions and impunity. The Mexican delegation addressed the issues explaining that the use of “arraigo” is in legislative reform before the Congress; that it takes torture very seriously and is working to implement the latest recommendations from the UNCAT; and that the Istanbul Protocol will be used more systematically to document all allegations of torture.

The IRCT urges both governments to accept all recommendations and commence the implementation work immediately.

The UPR is a UN mechanism to review the human rights record of UN member countries. Every four and a half years, a number of recommendations to improve the human rights situation are made to states under review. The main objectives of the UPR are to ensure that recommendations are concrete, to promote implementation and facilitate monitoring and evaluation of these efforts.