The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has petitioned the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) requesting the body “to urgently consider the deteriorating economic and social rights situation in Nigeria due to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s prolonged absence from duty, and his failure to empower the Vice President to act as president to sign and effectively implement the 2009 supplementary budget, and the budget for 2010.
In the petition dated 3 January 2010 and signed by SERAP’s Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni, the organization is “urging the HRC to simultaneously hold a special session on the non-compliance by the Nigerian government with its obligations in relation to the realization of economic, social and cultural rights; and to consider this petition under the HRC new Complaint Procedure, established pursuant to resolution 5/1 of the HRC, and General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006.
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This petition meets the requirements of the new Procedure, and raises issues of importance justifying the holding of a special session on Nigeria.”
According to the organization, “President Yar’Adua’s absence from duty, and his inability and failure to empower the Vice President to act as president pursuant to section 145 of 1999 Constitution, is obstructing the effective implementation of the 2009 supplementary budget and the 2010 budget, and indicate a failure to invest the ‘maximum of available resources’ to realize economic and social rights and to meet core obligations regarding the rights to education, health, food, among others. At the beginning of 2010, retrogression in the realization of these rights is apparent.”
“President Yar’Adua was flown to Saudi Arabia on November 23, 2009, for medical treatment, and to date the president has not returned to the country. President Yar’Adua reportedly, signed the 2009 supplementary budget from his sick bed in Saudi Arabia. The National Assembly had in November passed the N353.6 billion supplementary budget, which includes a capital spending of about N253 billion, out of which about N114 billion was earmarked for the critical “post-amnesty intervention” programmes in the Niger Delta,” the organization added.
Relying on Section 145 of the Constitution, the organization also argued that “the President has so far failed and/or neglected to empower the Vice President as required by the Constitution, thereby starving critical projects such as education and health important funds and precipitating unnecessary delay in addressing the deplorable conditions of our roads, and worsening the security situation in the Niger Delta. This situation is also undermining the effective utilization of a $300million Word Bank (obtained from the International Development Association, an arm of the World Bank) facility for gas to meet the 6,000 Megawatts target.”
The organization also argued that “Nigeria is a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. As such, the government has a legal responsibility to use the mechanism of the budget to allocate and spend maximum available resources to ensure the full enjoyment of the rights to health, education, food, water and housing by millions of Nigerians who continue to live in extreme poverty, with barely enough to eat.”
“This situation is worsening the government’s non-compliance with the fundamental principles of progressive realization according to maximum available resources, prioritization of minimum core obligations and the duty of non-discrimination. Millions of Nigerians remain extremely poor and lack access to basic economic and social rights. Nigerians have suffered and continue to suffer years of failed budgeting and implementation, a critical element of states’ obligations to fulfill economic and social rights,” the organization added.
The organization said that “the present situation in Nigeria is also contributing to the violation of the fundamental principle of non-discrimination and equality, which is essential to the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. Article 2(2) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Articles 1(3) and 55 of the UN Charter prohibit discrimination in the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights.”
“Under international law, a failure to act in good faith to comply with the obligation in Article 2(2) to guarantee that the rights enunciated in the Covenant will be exercised without discrimination amounts to a violation. SERAP contends that extreme poverty has resulted in pervasive discrimination, stigmatization and negative stereotyping of millions of marginalised Nigerians, denying them access to the same quality of education and health care as others, as well as to public places,” the organization further argued.
The organization also said that, “Nigeria is obligated not only to refrain from discriminatory actions, but also to take concrete, deliberate and targeted measures to ensure that discrimination in the exercise of Covenant rights is eliminated. The Nigerian government has a responsibility to ensure that through its budgetary allocations, strategies, policies, and plans of action are in place and implemented in order to address discrimination in the area of the Covenant rights.”
Signed
Executive Director
3/1/2010
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