Our Stakeholder report to Zambia’s Universal Periodic Review, led by Dr. Amna Nazir, makes specific recommendations to the government regarding child, early and forced marriage.
Researchers
Consultancy background
This Stakeholder Report focuses upon child, early and forced marriage and makes recommendations to the Government of Zambia on this key issue, implementation of which would see Benin move towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 5 which aim for “gender equality and empowering all women and girls” and “inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
Download the stakeholder report
On 21 November 2022, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published its Stakeholder Summary Report for Zambia, which cited the UPR Project at BCU:
“UPR-BCU called upon Zambia to adopt the ‘Southern African Development Community (SADC) Model Law to End Child Marriage’, amend the Marriage Act, and adopt a policy that clearly defines marriage and prohibits child marriage.” (para 82)
“UPR-BCU stated that the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated the risk of child, early and forced marriage due to the interruption in education, economic and food insecurity, disruptions to programmes and services, adolescent pregnancy, and death of a parent or primary caretaker.” (para 84)
Following the pre-sessions in Geneva, the European Union Delegation to the United Nations invited Dr Nazir to present at the Informal Exchange of Views with the EU Member States which took place on 6th December 2022. Dr Nazir raised concerns over the issue of child, early and forced marriage in Zambia and urged Member States to issue recommendations in this regard.
EU Submission presentation sheet
(Outcome of the review yet to be published)
About the UPR Project at BCU
The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has been engaging with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2016. Under the auspice of the Human Rights Council, the UPR is an intergovernmental process providing a review of the human rights record of all Member States.
Through the UPR Project at BCU, the CHR we engage with the UPR through taking part in the UPR Pre-sessions, providing capacity building for UPR stakeholders and National Human Rights Institutions, and the filing of stakeholder reports in selected sessions. The UPR Project is designed to help meet the challenges facing the safeguarding of human rights around the world, and to help ensure that UPR recommendations are translated into domestic legal change in member state parliaments.
We fully support the UPR ethos of encouraging the sharing of best practice globally to protect everyone's human rights. The UPR Project at BCU engages with the UPR regularly as a stakeholder, having submitted numerous reports and been cited by the OHCHR.