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Visit our previous UPR news page for country updates up to the 11th session of the UPR (May 2011).
What is the UPR?
When the General Assembly established the Human Rights Council (the Council) in June 2005, it mandated it to ‘undertake a universal periodic review…of the fulfilment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments.’ The Council defined the principles and modalities of this Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism in its institution-building package (Resolution 5/1), and selected the order of review for the first cycle in September 2007. The first session of the UPR Working Group took placed in April 2008 and 32 States have been reviewed so far.
For more information about these reviews, please see the Publications section.
What are the principles and objectives of the UPR?
The UPR is an intergovernmental mechanism with an emphasis on cooperation and dialogue among States. Council Resolution 5/1 stresses that the examination should be ‘conducted in an objective, transparent, non-selective, constructive, non-confrontational and non-politicized manner.’
The essential objective of the UPR is the improvement of human rights ‘on the ground.’ The UPR facilitates this through identifying achievements and challenges in the fulfilment of each State’s human rights obligations and commitments. It also provides an opportunity to assess the State’s needs for capacity building and technical assistance.
What is the periodicity and order of the review?
The periodicity of the review for the first cycle is four years, with 48 States reviewed over three sessions per year. The order of the review and the countries to be reviewed in 2008-2011 was decided in September 2007. The drawing of lots was a complex process taking into account the States’ membership of the Council, its regional group, and whether it has volunteered to be reviewed.
The members of the troika, three member States that act as rapporteurs, for the first two sessions were selected in December 2007. The selection process consists of a set of drawings of lots, one to select the combination of regional groups and three to select the individual members of the troika from each regional group. Before the drawing of lots, the State under review may request that one of the rapporteurs be from its regional group. Moreover, a State may request the substitution of a rapporteur on one occasion. On the other hand, a rapporteur may request to be excused from participation in a specific review process, in which case another rapporteur will be drawn from the same regional group. For more information please see the Alert on the 7th session of the Human Rights Council.
What is the basis of the review?
According to Council Resolution 5/1, the basis of the review is:
- The United Nations Charter (UN)
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
- Human rights instruments to which a State is party
- Voluntary pledges and commitments made by States
- Applicable international humanitarian law
In more concrete terms, the review is based on three documents:
- National report
This is a 20-page document prepared by the State under review. In Council Resolution 5/1, ‘States are encouraged to prepare the information through a broad consultation process at the national level with all relevant stakeholders.’
- Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) compilation of UN information
This is a 10-page compilation prepared by OHCHR of reports of treaty bodies, special procedures, including observations and comments by the State concerned, and other relevant official UN documents. Some UN bodies submit reports to OHCHR on the State under review. The information provided in these is included in the compilation, and the original report is made available on the website.
- OHCHR summary of stakeholders’ information
This is a 10-page summary by OHCHR of ‘credible and reliable information’ submitted by other relevant stakeholders. The original reports are available alongside the summary on the website.
What happens during the review?
Interactive dialogue
Each UPR session lasts three hours, and takes the form of an interactive dialogue between the Working Group and the State under review. The State under review has approximately one hour for its presentation, replies to questions, and closing remarks. The delegation of the State under review usually consists of representatives of various ministries and is generally led by high-level delegates at the ministerial level.
The session begins with introductory remarks by the Head of the delegation of the State under review, which lasts about half an hour. The State dedicates most of this statement to highlighting developments in particular areas and replying to questions, which were submitted prior to the session. Other States can submit questions in writing to the State under review, via the troika, prior to the session to facilitate the dialogue.
The main segment of the review is the interactive dialogue, which takes the form of questions and comments by member and observer States, and replies by the State under review. States are allowed to pose questions and/or make recommendations on any human rights issue in the State under review, whether general or specific. The practice so far has been that the State under review responds to the questions put to it in clusters of seven to ten. The Head of the delegation may personally answer all the questions or may delegate them to different members of the delegation. Given the time constraint, the delegation may opt to subsequently reply to some points in writing. Following the question and answer session, the State under review is given an opportunity to make a short closing statement.
Adoption of the report
After the review, the troika prepares the report on the session with the help of OHCHR. These reports are composed of two parts. The first is a factual summary of the discussions that took place during the interactive dialogue. The second part lists the recommendations made to the State under review, with specific mention of the State(s) that made the particular recommendation. Whether a recommendation enjoys the support of the State under review or not is also noted.
The draft report is put before the Working Group two days after the review. Both the State under review and a representative of the troika make very short statements, giving their impressions of the UPR session and the report. After adoption by the Working Group, the report is transmitted to the Human Rights Council for its consideration at an upcoming session.
Further reading
For a commentary on the establishment of the UPR, see:
- ISHR's Human Rights Monitor 2007
- Meghna Abraham, Building the New Human Rights Council, Outcome and analysis of the institution-building year, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, Occasional papers, No. 33/ August 2007.
- Rachel Brett, Neither Mountain nor Molehill, UN Human Rights Council: One Year On, Quaker United Nations Office (Geneva, August 2007)
- For more information on the review of each country under the UPR, see the ISHR UPR Monitor, which reports on each country reviewed and provides analytical overviews of UPR sessions. These reports are available in the Publications section
- For more information, including on how to submit information, see the OHCHR webpage on the UPR
- UPR-Info is a website dedicated to the UPR with information on the UPR process, the reports from States, NGOs, and OHCHR as well as the outcome and recommendations. UPR-Info has recently developed tables that show which issues were raised by which State and on which State under review.
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