The 4th year of the Human Rights Council (HRC) ended with the adoption of the UPR Working Group reports of session 8 (May 2010). Eleven States submitted their responses in an addendum which is the highest number after session 4 (12) and on the same line as previous sessions: 9 for session 5 and 6, 10 for session 3, 9 for session 2 and 7 for session 1.
The three-day adoptions were followed by a general debate on the UPR. Member-States, observers, and NGOs took the floor to discuss several issues including: the speaker’s list, the responses to recommendations, the second cycle, reporting under item 6 and the presentation of mid-term reports. On the latter, Finland, France and the Netherlands presented information on the implementation of UPR recommendations.
The 5th year of the HRC started with the selection of the order of review for session 10, 11 and 12 and the selection of troikas for session 9, 10 and 11. Haiti will be the last State of the first cycle to be reviewed on October the 13th 2011.
On UPR-info.org, we have developed two timelines explaining States under Review and members of the Working Group participation at the UPR. Those documents detail in one page the different steps of the process from their perspective with the timeframe for each step.
Concerning responses to recommendations provided during the adoptions, we have updated the documents listing all the recommendations received and the responses given by States under Review. Also, we have issued a “Methodology” to shed lights on how we analyse the responses to recommendations. This document explains the four categories we have (accepted, rejected, no clear position and pending) and how we deal with the three new categories (accepted in part, already implemented or in the process of implementation and noted).