OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN, SAMOA Samoa’s Second Universal Periodic Review 1 Introduction 1. This submission was prepared by the Office of the Ombudsman, Samoa’s National Human Rights Institution (NHRI).1 It provides information to the United Nations Human Rights Council (the Council) regarding the promotion and protection of human rights in Samoa for the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). 2. The submission will provide the Council with a snapshot of the scope of Samoa’s human rights obligations and the national human rights framework, as well as focus on human rights issues which were discussed in the NHRI’s first State of Human Rights Report (SHRR).2 These issues include human rights issues for vulnerable populations such as women, children, people with disabilities (PWD’s) and prisoners; as well as the rights to health and freedom of religion in Samoa. 2 Background 2.1 Scope of international obligations 3. Samoa has ratified four core human rights treaties.3 The Samoan Government has signed but is yet to ratify the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD).4 4. Given the limited capacity and resources of Samoa as a Small Island Developing State, the NHRI believes that the Samoan Government should prioritise signing and ratifying the following key instruments between the second and third cycles of the UPR. Recommendation 1: That the Samoan Government should prioritise signing and ratifying:  The Convention Against Torture (CAT).  The Optional Protocol on the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT)5. The Office of the Ombudsman became Samoa’s NHRI in 2013 via the enactment of the Ombudsman (Komesina o Sulufaiga) Act 2013. Section 33 of the Act outlines the powers and functions of the NHRI. One such function includes the power to ‘monitor and promote compliance with international and domestic human rights law including...providing information to the international human rights system, including the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms and the human rights treaty monitoring bodies’. 2 The NHRI is required to submit a report on the status of human rights in Samoa to the Samoan Parliament by 31 June each year; Ombudsman (Komesina o Sulufaiga) Act 2013, s 40. A copy of the NHRI’s first SHRR can be found at http://www.ombudsman.gov.ws/. 3 Samoa ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 29 November 1994 with one reservation under Article 28(1)(a) relating to the provision of free primary education. It ratified the Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED) on 27 November 2012 without reservation. It acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 25 September 1992 without reservation—the first Pacific island to do so. It acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on 15 February 2008 without reservation. 4 Samoa signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 24 September 2014. 1 3