ALGERIA (on behalf of the African Group)

Elected For: 1 year
Foreign Secretary: Mohamed Bedjaoui
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Idriss Jazaïry
Main Commitment Made by the Member: examining the application of human rights in the country
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: homicides, acts of torture, impunity, missing persons, freedom of speech

• “The review process starts with the presentation of a national self-assessment report prepared by the State concerned”
• “To ensure transparency, the plenary must be made public and open to all.  Discussions, however, are limited to members of the Council only”
• -3 to 5 years

BANGLADESH

Elected For: 3 years
Foreign Secretary: Morshed Khan
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Toufiq Ali
Main Commitment Made by the Member: reinforcing anti-corruption and anti-terrorist policies
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: acts of violence against minorities, death penalty, aggravation of violence

• “It would be useful for the Council to formulate a standard questionnaire, as a basis on which countries would prepare their Reports.  Based on the Report, questions could be posed to the country during the Review in the Council”
• “need a different periodicity for the developed, the developing and the least developed countries.  Many developing countries will have difficulty coping with the management needs and will require more time than a developed country”

BRAZIL

Elected For: 2 years
Foreign Secretary: Celso Amorim
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Clodoaldo Hugueney
Main Commitment Made by the Member: envisaging the abolition of death penalty
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: law and order, police homicides, acts of torture and bad treatment, living conditions in prison, impunity

• “States and civil society could also send questions to be included in the questionnaire”
• “Brazil supports a hybrid system, composed both by States – Members and Observers – and experts.  NGOs and representatives of civil society could also participate, providing information for the preparatory process and taking part into the interactive dialogue”
• “[Expert] nomination would consider professional skills and personal qualities, as well as regional representation and gender balance”
• “representatives of national civil society could address the UPR mechanism to ask for the compliance of national obligations”
• -3 to 4 years

CANADA

Elected For: 3 years
Foreign Secretary: Peter Gordon Mackay
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Don Stephenson
Main Commitment Made by the Member: searching for new methods in order to improve the Council's efficiency
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: acts of violence against native women, police brutality, protection of refugees

WILPF have a section in Canada

• “The OHCHR compiles a country dossier from existing information available from UN documents, including the periodic reports of States Parties to the UN human rights treaty bodies, the Concluding Observations of the treaty bodies, and reports from the special procedures and the OHCHR, and make this publicly available as well as to the state concerned.  International and national human rights non-governmental organizations as well as national human rights institutions should also have the opportunity to provide input into the process”
• -3 years

FINLAND (on behalf of the EUROPEAN UNION)

Elected For: 1 year
Foreign Secretary: Erkki Tuomioja
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Vesa Himanen
Main Commitment Made by the Member: insisting on the importance of the NGOs' taking part in the work of the Council
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: conscientious objectors, acts of violence against women, inequity in granting of residence permits

WILPF have a section in Finland

• “..should be based on existing information and recommendations, in particular, the findings of Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures.”
• “The review process should be conducted under the authority of the Council while making best use of expert input and involvement and ensuring NGO and National Human Rights Institutions’ participation.”
• “..in favour of establishing a separate inter-sessional working group or sub-committee responsible for undertaking the review..”

IRAN (Islamic Republic of)

Observer State

• “the review should be conducted on the basis of response of the country concerned to a standardized set of questions”
• “To ensure transparency, the interactive dialogue with the country under review should be conducted within the Council in a plenary session to be made public and open to all”

REPUBLIC OF KOREA

Elected For: 2 years
Foreign Secretary: Ban Ki-moon
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Hyuck Choi
Main Commitment Made by the Member: offering technical help to the countries that wish to acquire democratic institutions
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: asylum seekers and refugees, immigrant workers, death penalty

• “The participation of NGOs in the follow-up process should be encouraged in various ways, including the submission of information on implementation by states”

MALAYSIA

Elected For: 3 years
Foreign Secretary: Abdel Ilah Khatib
Head of the Mission in Geneva: musa Burayzat
Main Commitment Made by the Member: inviting special rapporteurs and independent experts for their mandates
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: human rights in the war against terrorism, acts of torture, acts of violence and discrimination against women, death penalty

• “The review should be peer process, conducted by member states of the Council, based on objective criteria on a format agreed to by the Council and applicable to all undergoing the review”
• -5 years

MALDIVES

Observer State

• “The Maldives’ preferred solution to this challenge [as a Least Developed Country] is to ensure that the UPR does not create significant new reporting requirements, but rather complements the information provided by existing mechanisms such as treaty bodies and Special Procedures”
• “the Universal Periodic Review should be conducted on the basis of the reviewed country’s response to a questionnaire”
• “The sessions should be open to the public”
• “supports the Sri Lankan proposal to establish a fund to assist capital-based experts from Least Developed Countries to travel and stay in Geneva for the interactive dialogue”
• “The Maldives holds that the UPR, in line with Resolution 60/251, must be based on the principle of equality of treatment.  The Maldives therefore looks forwarded to being reviewed with the same regularity as all other States”

PAKISTAN (on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference)

Elected For: 2 years
Foreign Secretary: Khurshid Kasuri
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Masood Khan
Main Commitment Made by the Member: sustaining efforts for the ratification of human rights treaties on the international scale
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: arbitrary arrests and missing persons, no minority protection, death penalty

• “The presentation should be prepared and presented by the states themselves [including the] role and independence of the media and civil society.”
• “The Council each year shall approve a standard Questionnaire”
• “The [UPR] will involve all Council members.  If it is considered by a Committee, it should be a Committee of the Whole.  Observer states and NGOs with the ECOSOC consultative status will observe the proceedings.”
• “The relationship with the NGOs has to be handled carefully.  Council members and NGOs should cooperate and respect each others space.”
• -All UN States within a 5 year cycle OR
• -Developed States every 3 years to Lesser Developed Countries every 7 years

PHILIPPINES

Elected For: 1 year
Foreign Secretary: Alberto Romulo
Head of the Mission in Geneva: Enrique A. Manalo
Main Commitment Made by the Member: meeting the new challenges related to globalization and to the fight against terrorism
Main Grievances Made by NGOs: communist revolt and the peace process, homicides of left wing activists, the judiciary, death penalty

WILPF have a section in Philippines

• “The preparatory phase could involve the drafting of a questionnaire and transmittal of said questionnaire to the country under review well in advance of the interactive dialogue, to give countries sufficient time to prepare their replies”
• “The interactive dialogue should be a [?] review and be held in a private session…by experts to be designated by HRC member states”
• -5 to 6 years

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Observer State

• “The process would begin with the circulation by the Peer Review Working Group of a short factual questionnaire for each country”
• “Based on the questionnaire and information received from other sources [?] ..including NGOs”
• “Peer review would be conducted by a working group made of members of the Council”
• “All UN members would be reviewed on an equal basis and with the same frequency.  It is patronizing to treat developing countries as second-class States to be reviewed less frequently.  Those nations deserve as much advice and help as developed nations”
• -5 years

Amnesty Int’l, Human Rights Watch, Int’l Federation of Human Rights Leagues, World Organization Against Torture, Int’l commission of Jurists & Int’l Service for Human Rights

JOINT STATEMENT

• “A substantive role for NGOs, including the possibility to submit information for consideration, and to participate in the interactive dialogue with the state under review”
• “National and international NGOs with substantial knowledge of the situation in the reviewed state, regardless of ECOSOC accreditation, must have the opportunity to contribute to the review”
• “Independent expert review and synthesis of the available country-specific information to distill this material into a list of key issues for review and questions to be addressed by the government in review”
• “the outcome could propose a range of measures, including recommendations to provide capacity-building and technical assistance, calls for visits by special procedures; establishment of an OHCHR fact-finding mission or field office; or appointment of a country-specific Rapporteur”

Japan Federation of Bar Associations

• “need for having the pre-sessional working body on a regional basis”
• “the pre-sessional working body will have a meeting for informal and publicly open discussion in a country in the region participated by the Member States in the region as well as NGOs, civil society organizations and professionals with active interest in the human rights matters in the region”

Lutheran World Federation, Int’l Council of Jewish Women, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, Int'l Movement Against all forms of Discrimination and Racism, World Union of Catholic Women’s Organization, Int’l Alliance of Women & World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women

JOINT STATEMENT

• “propose an independent expert role in information analysis and preparation for UPR, which should result in the identification and articulation of a very limited number of key issues and recommendations for discussion during the plenary review”
• “propose an independent expert role in follow-up to each review, in order not only to ensure legitimate and effective outcomes from the UPR process, but also to encourage their effective implementation”

Pax Romana, Asian forum for Human Rights and Development, International Alliance of Women & International Federation of University Women

JOINT STATEMENT

• “a number of states have clearly mentioned the need for an expert body, given the broad term of reference as well as looking at ‘objective and reliable information’ as well as balancing the level of development and capacity needs of the country under consideration”
• “emphasize the need for a national focal point in relation to the UPR”
• “it is not merely a state-centric exercise involving only the executive arm of the government, rather all arms of the government, and above all the full and transparent participation of the people of the country concerned including the NGOs (including NGOs without ECOSOC status), National Human Rights Institutions (NHRI’s), parliamentarians, civil society, the media and other non-state actors.  All these actors should be involved in each step of the consideration of UPR, starting from the information gathering up to the implementation of the follow up”

United Nations Watch

• “urges the Council to create a system that fairly subjects every UN member state to careful scrutiny of its human rights record; that is based on a wide range of objective and reliable information from a variety of sources; that allows NGO participation; and that leads to concrete conclusions and recommendations that can be effectively followed up on”
• “hope that the idea that developing countries should be reviewed less frequently than developed ones will not be adopted”