UN envoy on arbitrary executions to visit Nigeria in June and July

The United Nations expert on summary or arbitrary executions has scheduled a 13-day fact-finding tour of Nigeria, starting later this month, at the invitation of the Nigerian Government.

From 27 June to 9 July, Philip Alston, UN Commission on Human Rights’ Special Rapporteur expert dealing with extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions will visit the capital, Abuja, as well as Kano, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Yanagoa and Warri.

He will meet Government ministers, senior Government officials and representatives of the police, the judiciary and the security forces. He will also talk with private individuals, lawyers and leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other private organizations.

Mr. Alston is Faculty Director of New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice and chaired the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 1991 to 1998.

He is also Special Adviser to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), targets set in 2000 to address a spectrum of social and economic ills by 2015.