النشرات الأخبارية

  • [UPR Trax] No 65: The Power of the UPR lies in effective implementation

    20/10/2016

    UPR adoptions and the final Pre-session of the second cycle

    September saw the adoption of the final reports of States from UPR session 25, the Human Rights Council (HRC) debate on the UPR, and the deadline for stakeholder submissions for those engaging with the UPR session 27. During the adoptions, at the HRC, Samoa were unable to send a delegation however their responses and explanations had been submitted in advance and were therefore accepted by the President. At the debate, on the final day of the adoptions, UPR Info, alongside others, delivered a statement on the UPR mechanism and the need for states to focus on implementation and reporting, a call echoed by many, during the third UPR cycle beginning in May 2017.

    Alongside monitoring these activities UPR Info has been finalising the plans for both the final Pre-session of the second UPR cycle, and the Seminar for Recommending States at the UPR, both of which took place in October.  UPR Info Asia has also been working tirelessly to support the civil society organisation (CSO) coalitions from Thailand and Burma/Myanmar in their UPR follow-up engagement, whilst also delivering training and workshops on the benefits of the UPR in the region. 

  • [UPR Trax] No 64: Sustainable implementation top of the agenda for UPR 3rd Cycle

    13/09/2016

    Summer updates 2016

    Since the 32nd Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in June, UPR Info has been working to ensure the website, database, statistics, regional offices, and programmes continue to support all stakeholders of the UPR. In recent months, both of the UPR Info regional offices have expanded their projects on the ground, supported by an increase in staff number. The UPR Info website is now accessible in Arabic, adding to our previous languages of English, French and Spanish. In addition, the statistics feature has been updated so it is compatible with smart phones.

    In the coming weeks we will have the adoptions of the UPR Reports for the 25th Working Group session during the 33rd HRC (21-23 September), and the next round of Pre-sessions (5-7 October). We are also working towards the 26th Session of the UPR Working Group in November, which will mark the final session of the second cycle. This has driven much activity of late as all UPR stakeholders discuss and plan how to make the third UPR cycle successful, with particular focus on sustainable implementation of recommendations. UPR Info has been advocating for 14 points geared towards enhancing the third cycle, which are available below.

    We look forward to supporting all stakeholders in the third UPR cycle in an even more meaningful way. We are starting to discover the potential of the UPR for advancing human rights.

  • [UPR Trax] No 63: Human Rights Council turns 10

    30/06/2016

    10th anniversary of the Human Rights Council triggers important discussions on how to improve its efficiency

    June marks the 32nd Session of the Human Rights Council, and ten year anniversary since its inaugural first session in June 2006. The momentous occasion has sparked reflection and discussion amongst its stakeholders, in particular on how to improve the body’s technical efficiency going forward. UPR Info utilised the 32 nd Session to make suggestions on improving the technical aspects of the UPR in particular, building on broader consultations it had participate in recent months.

  • [UPR Trax] No 62: Launch of UPR Info Africa offers multi-stakeholder regional support for the UPR

    31/05/2016

    UPR Info’s new Africa Regional Office was formally launched in Nairobi, Kenya, last month. The Africa Office has been working since June 2015, organising several workshops with civil society organisations (CSOs), dialogue-days between CSOs and governments as well as multi-stakeholder training sessions. The Office will play an important role in raising awareness and providing capacity-building tools to the stakeholders involved in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The focus of many of the Office’s activities will be the implementation of UPR recommendations, which is vital in order to realise the ultimate goal of this mechanism: “the improvement of the human rights situation on the ground”.
     

  • [UPR Trax] No 61: Restriction of civil society must not go unchecked

    26/04/2016

    The arrival of spring saw UPR Info Pre-Sessions at the top of agenda. 11 States were discussed over three days, where we had the highest rate of participation by national NGOs to date. While the Pre-sessions successfully served as a key human rights advocacy platform for civil society, we unfortunately also experienced an unprecedented situation on the restriction of participants. A few days before the Pre-session of Sudan, the Sudanese authorities prevented four of the country's prominent human rights defenders from travelling to Geneva to participate. UPR Info is deeply concerned by this flagrant restriction on civil society participation, and calls on Sudan to remove the travel bans and to ensure that NGOs can freely participate in the UPR process.
     

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