Civil society organisations’ engagement on the UPR – The Zambian Case

1. Civil society organisations’ engagement on the UPR – The Zambian Case 7th International Training Session on the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review 25 October 2012

2. Zambian CSOs’ Engagement on UN Human Rights Systems • Historical through alternative / shadow reports to treaty bodies. • Now UPR stakeholders’ reporting. • All are unique tools by which us CSOs in Zambia present our opinions on our government’s actions or lack thereof its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. • Provides an opportunity for us CSOs to undertake a systematic analysis of the extent to which law, policy and practice in Zambia is in compliance with human rights provisions to which Zambia is a State party to.

3. Compiling Stakeholder’s report on UPR in Zambia • In Zambia the preparation and compilation of a stakeholder’s report on children’s rights is done in a collaborative effort by a group of NGOs rather than by different individual NGOs because: • a report prepared by a coalition rather than individual NGOs is much more difficult to disregard or discredit and it lends greater legitimacy to information submitted on violations of rights. • our government can easily claim that information submitted by one NGO should not be taken seriously because that particular NGO is politically motivated, linked to the opposition, not reliable, or is basing its criticism on fantasy rather than fact. But it is much more difficult for our government to discredit a report prepared by a group of us.

4. A collaborative approach facilitates: • The strengthening of the stakeholders’ reporting process. • Easy access to information through specialised thematic organisations. • Production of a comprehensive report instead of many thematic reports. • Concerted effort in resources mobilisation. • Relatively easy dissemination of information. • Every NGO in the child rights sector has a role to play – feeding information to the drafting task force.

5. Collaboration addresses the following challenges: • Lack of capacity in terms of knowledge & skills in individual organisations. • Limited funding. • Poor civil society coalition/poor advocacy. • Failure to track government state reporting processes. • Poor information dissemination. • Limited time to prepare reports.

6. 2008 Child Rights CSOs UPR Stakeholder’s Report Compilation Process • CSO’s meeting spearheaded by INGOs (Save the Children and Plan Zambia) where the UPR process was disseminated. Twenty-two child rights organisations attended. • At the same meeting the stakeholders’ reporting guidelines was also disseminated and explained. (number of pages , laying out of information and deadline for submission) • A process to prioritise issues was done: • Child legislations review 2. Non operationalisation of the National Child Policy 3. Non establishment of a National Child Council for coordination of children’s programmes 4. Inadequate awareness raising by government of human rights in general and children’s in particular especially to professionals working with children such as teachers and health workers 5. In adequate birth registration 6. Increased budget allocation to children’s programmes in the national budget

7. 2008 Child Rights CSOs Engagement on UPR continued • Formation of thematic groups based on the themes identified (Only 18 organisations agreed to continue with process). • Formation of drafting task force (Four organisations volunteered). • Data collection (All 18 stakeholders). •  Verification of data (Task Force). • Report writing (Task Force). • Dissemination of report to stakeholders (state and non state actors). • Publication of summary of report in print and electronic media. • Submission to Geneva • Only 8 stakeholder reports submitted. The Child Rights CSO report was cited 16 times in the Summary of Stakeholders’ Submissions compiled by the OHCHR. • Five recommendations pertaining to our report were accepted by our country. • After that we did nothing.

8. 2012 CSO engagement on UPR • Followed similar pattern but this time 32 child rights organisations took place in process with varying inputs. • More information on UPR and CSOs role on each step and on whole process. • Two organisations chosen to coordinate one INGO and one local. • Five themes were identified: - Children’s right to education - Children’s access to justice - Children’s right to participation - Child Protection - Violence Against Children - Children’s right to health • Facilitated a separate consultation with children (100 aged 8year to 18 years) first to consult them on the identified prioritised themes and to solicit their input in the report. • Submitted report to Geneva.

9. 2012 engagement on UPR cont • Distributed our report to all child line government departments and embassies and media bodies. • Lobbying with missions in Zambia started. • Missions invited all stakeholders (14 submitted reports) to a meeting with them rather than seeing us each separately • All stakeholders present in Zambia attended the meeting and flagged off the most pertinent issues. • Summary by OHCHR has included all our (JS6) five issues in the report . • Monday 29th Oct. adverts in the major national newspapers of summary of our report will be published as well as a way of informing the public on the process. • A screening of a video conference of Zambia’s review on Tuesday 30th Oct. is planned at the American Information Centre. • Lobbying with our government before it adopts will be done. • Plans to monitor implementation are also underway.

10. Range of information sources • When compiling a stakeholders’ report in Zambia the broadest possible range of information sources is used including: • current legislation and government reports on its implementation. • government statistics. • verbatim records of parliamentary/legislative proceedings. • reports published by organizations and professional bodies working with children. • published research (government, academic, NGO), books and periodicals.

11. Thank you for your attention Prepared by Judith M. A. Mulenga Executive Director of Zambia Civic Education Association. Lusaka. Zambia.