News

  • Peace, freedom of expression, and gender equality - recommendations to end the second UPR cycle

    10/11/2016

    The 26th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group took place from 31 October to 9 November 2016. During the session, 11 States underwent their second UPR: Togo, Syria, Venezuela, Iceland, Zimbabwe, Lithuania, Uganda, Timor-Leste, Moldova, Haiti, and South Sudan. In total, the 11 States received 2106 recommendations and at first count 40.5% recommendations were accepted. We can expect more accepted recommendations as every States left recommendations pending and will provide further information no later than during the 34th Human Rights Council (HRC) in March 2017.

  • UPR Info Event and Publication Launch

    28/10/2016

    Save the date

    On Thursday 10 November 2016, 4:00 pm, Room XX, Palais des Nations, UPR Info, together with the Permanent Missions of Switzerland, Morocco and the United Kingdom, will be hosting the event Ensuring sustainable implementation at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).

    At this event, which will be opened by the Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Kate Gilmore, and the President of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Kyonglim Choi, marking the end of the second UPR cycle, UPR Info will launch its new study, The Butterfly Effect – Spreading Good Practices of UPR Implementation. This study provides a robust assessment of the UPR’s ability to deliver on its promise to strengthen human rights at the domestic level. Based on interviews with Government officials, civil society organisations (CSOs) and UN agencies, the publication takes stock of achievements, and shortfalls, of the mechanism to date. It shares good practices of implementation of recommendations from across the globe as well as detailing how Governments and civil society have structured their cooperation to sustain human rights progress.

  • Thailand: Training of Trainers on the importance of ‘credible evidence’ for effective human rights documentation

    25/10/2016

    More than 20 focal points of the Thai CSOs Coalition for the UPR met on 12th October for a three-day workshop to assess the coalition's capacity to gather credible evidence for effective human rights documentation. The event, ‘Training of Trainers on the Importance of Credible Evidence for Effective Human Rights Documentation’ was co-organised by UPR Info Asia with the Thai CSOs Coalition for the UPR, the Rights and Liberties Protection Department of the Ministry of Justice, and with the financial support of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). The workshop launched a series of sub-regional capacity-building workshops to be hosted in Thailand throughout the remainder of 2016, in which the focal points will lead key discussions.

  • Final recommendations of the UPR second cycle must demand action

    20/10/2016

    On Wednesday 19th October, UPR Info organised a Seminar on The Role of Recommending States at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and over 30 diplomats attended. The panel, chaired by Roland Chauville, UPR Info Executive Director, was composed of delegates from the Permanent Mission of Netherlands and Sierra Leone represented by Ms. Kirsten Hommes and H.E. Ambassador Ms. Yvette Stevens respectively, and Shahrzad Tadjbaksh from the UPR branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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