Lesotho’s Human Rights Record to Be Examined by Universal Periodic Review

The human rights record of Lesotho will be examined by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the fourth time on Wednesday, 30 April 2025, in a meeting in Geneva that will be webcast live.

Lesotho is one of 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session from 28 April to 9 May 2025. The first, second and third UPR reviews of Lesotho took place in May 2010, January 2015 and January 2020, respectively.

The UPR Working Group is comprised of the 47 Member States of the Human Rights Council. However, each of the 193 UN Member States can participate in a country review.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report – information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the special procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations, and civil society groups.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Lesotho on 30 April can be found here.

Location: Room XX, Palais des Nations, Geneva.

Time and date: 14:30 – 18:00, Wednesday, 30 April 2025 (GMT+2).

The UPR is a peer review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN Member States have been reviewed thrice. During the fourth UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow up on and highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of Lesotho will be led by Mr. Richard Ramoeletsi, Minister of Law and Justice.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Lesotho are Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa.

The webcast of the session will be at: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1y/k1ypkwnawz

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Lesotho will be posted on the UPR Extranet.

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Lesotho on Wednesday, 7 May 2025, between 15:30 and 18:00 (GMT+2). The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during its review.

Per Kind Favour of APO

Africa Fact: The Nigerian city of Surame flourished in the sixteenth century. Even in ruin it was an impressive sight, built on a horizontal vertical grid. A modern scholar describes it thus: “The walls of Surame are about 10 miles in circumference and include many large bastions or walled suburbs running out at right angles to the main wall. The large compound at Kanta is still visible in the centre, with ruins of many buildings, one of which is said to have been two-storied. The striking feature of the walls and whole ruins is the extensive use of stone and tsokuwa (laterite gravel) or very hard red building mud, evidently brought from a distance. There is a big mound of this near the north gate about 8 feet in height. The walls show regular courses of masonry to a height of 20 feet and more in several places. The best preserved portion is that known as sirati (the bridge) a little north of the eastern gate . . . The main city walls here appear to have provided a very strongly guarded entrance about 30 feet wide.”