UN Universal Periodic Review of Countries - Important Resource for Gender Advocacy

THE FINAL REPORTS OF THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW WORKING GROUP MAY CONTAIN GENDER FOCUSED TEXT THAT CAN BE VERY

USEFUL IN NGO ADVOCACY.

SHADOW REPORTS PRESENTED DURING THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW CAN BE HIGHLY INFORMATIVE.

A SHADOW-ALTERNATIVE REPORT MAY BE SUBMITTED BY NGO'S ACCORDING TO GUIDELINES AND DEADLINES. Check at:

The deadline for submission of contributions for the third UPR session (scheduled from 1 to 12 December 2008) has been set at 14 July 2008.

Full information on countries to be reviewed at all sessions of UPR Cycle:

http://www.ohchr.org:80/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/NewDeadlines.aspx

UPR Information for NGO's:

http://www.ohchr.org:80/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/NoteNGO.aspx

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The Universal Periodic Review: Equality and Effectiveness

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process has gained new momentum with the completion of its second session, held in Geneva from 5 to 19 May. The two-week meeting, which included dialogue between countries, reviewed the human-rights records of 16 States.

Members of the Human Rights Council at the first Universal Periodic Review session - © UN Photo/Pierre Virot The UPR was established in 2007 by the Human Rights Council to evaluate, on the basis of objective and reliable information, if States were fulfilling their human rights obligations and commitments.

The effectiveness of this mechanism depends on “the willingness of countries to be open to genuine scrutiny,” says High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. She notes the considerable amount of effort that has gone into fleshing out “the inherent characteristics of the UPR, namely the universality of its coverage and the equal treatment of all member States of the United Nations.”

The High Commissioner has called the UPR process “the most distinguishing and innovative procedure” of the Human Rights Council, and believes it “may offer a baseline to evaluate progress, correct deficiencies, and devise remedial actions.” Indeed, Ms Arbour says the UPR “may also prevent violations and sound an early warning on impending crises.”

The inclusiveness of the UPR process has played an important part in its development. States are encouraged to gather the information for their reports through national consultations with all relevant stakeholders. All credible information provided by stakeholders is summarized by OHCHR for consideration by the Council.

If the countries reviewed in the first UPR session in April are included, by now 32 nations have had their human rights records reviewed. A third session in December, which will look at another 16 countries, will mark the completion of the first year of the four-year cycle of reviews that completes one round of the UPR system.

A total of 48 United Nations Member States will be reviewed each year, and all members of the Human Rights Council will be reviewed during their terms of membership.

The 16 countries reviewed in the latest UPR session were Benin, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mali, Pakistan, Peru, Romania, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tonga, Ukraine and Zambia. The reports adopted for the 16 countries are available on the extranet.

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http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx

Information for NGO's: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/NoteNGO.aspx

United Nations Universal Periodic Review

The Human Rights Council (HRC), based in Geneva, was established pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 and consists of forty-seven Member States of the United Nations.

The General Assembly, in its resolution 60/251, mandated the Council to " undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfillment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments in a manner which ensures universality of coverage and equal treatment with respect to all States; the review shall be a cooperative mechanism, based on an interactive dialogue, with the full involvement of the country concerned and with consideration given to its capacity-building needs; such a mechanism shall complement and not duplicate the work of treaty bodies. "

At its fifth session on 18 June 2007, the Council responded to this request and adopted, in its resolution 5/1, detailed modalities regarding the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism. These modalities relate, in particular, to the basis of the review, principles and objectives to be followed, the periodicity and order of review of countries, process and modalities, as well as the outcome and the follow-up to the review. Furthermore, the HRC decided that the review would be conducted in one working group composed of the 47 member States of the Council. In 2008, the working group will hold three sessions, scheduled to take place at the Office of the United Nations in Geneva .

At its sixth session, on 21 September 2007, the Human Rights Council adopted a calendar in relation to the consideration of the 192 Member States of the United Nations to be considered during the first four-year cycle of the UPR mechanism, and decided on the precise order of consideration of reviewed States in 2008.

In accordance with resolution 5/1, the documents on which the review would be based are:

• Information prepared by the State concerned, which can take the form of a national report, and any other information considered relevant by the State concerned, which could be presented either orally or in writing. The written presentation summarizing the information shall not exceed 20 pages, and should be submitted six weeks prior to the session of the Working Group at which the specific review will take place. States are encouraged to prepare the information through a broad consultation process at the national level with all relevant stakeholders.

• Additionally a compilation prepared by the OHCHR of the information contained in the reports of treaty bodies, special procedures, including observations and comments by the State concerned, and other relevant official United Nations documents, which shall not exceed 10 pages;

• Additional, credible and reliable information provided by other relevant stakeholders to the universal periodic review which should also be taken into consideration by the Council in the review, which will be summarized by the OHCHR in a document that shall not exceed 10 pages. Stakeholders include, inter alia, NGOs, NHRIs, Human rights defenders, Academic institutions and Research institutes, Regional organizations, as well as civil society representatives. Please note that deadlines for the submission of information by stakeholders for the first UPR session is 20 November 2007

The national report shall be prepared on the basis of General guidelines adopted by the Council at its sixth session on 27 September 2007. The documents prepared by the OHCHR should be elaborated following the structure of these General guidelines.

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