WHAT IS THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW?

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a new and unique human rights mechanism of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council aiming at improving the human rights situation on the ground of each of the 192 UN Member State. Under this mechanism, the human rights situation of all UN Member States is reviewed every 4 years (48 States are reviewed each year during three UPR sessions dedicated to 16 States each).

The result of each review is reflected in an “outcome report” listing the recommendations made to the State under review (SuR) including those that it accepted and which it will have to implement before the next review.

The UPR is a full-circle process comprising three key stages:

1. Review of the human rights situation of the SuR
2. Implementation between two reviews (4 years) of the recommendations accepted and voluntary pledges and commitments by the SuR
3. Reporting at the next review on the implementation of those recommendations and pledges and on the human rights situation in the country since the previous review.

India's UPR

India was part of the first series of States to be reviewed by the Human Rights Council in April 2008. It will be reviewed again in 2012. Following India's review, the Government of India accepted 18 recommendations made to it by other states. WGHR has prepared a chart with a preliminary assessment of the implementation of those recommendations

To view most important documents on India's first UPR and other useful UN documents visit the Resources page.

In April 2011, WGHR organised a national Consultative Workshop on the UPR, which brought together representatives from the Ministry of External Affairs, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), various UN agencies, diplomats and civil society. Following this workshop, WGHR decided to play a role of catalyst in civil society’s efforts in the run-up to India’s second UPR and to build a large coalition around the UPR process. WGHR is taking forward the work initiated by the “Peoples’ Forum for the UPR” at the time of India’s first UPR.

WGHR coordinated the drafting of a joint "stakeholders' report" which addressed some of the most pressing human rights issues in India today. In order for the report to reflect the current human rights challenges in the country as precisely as possible, WGHR and its regional partners held a series of five regional consultations with civil society actors across India between 28 August and 28 September 2011. Click here to see the map of UPR consultations organized by WGHR.

Five priority themes were identified to facilitate discussions at the regional consultations:

• Access to justice
• Economic, social and cultural rights & the right to development
• Discrimination
• Militarisation & security legislation and apparatus
• Human rights defenders.

These regional consultations were followed by a national consultation on 11th-12th October 2011, which, brought together representatives from all five regional consultations and looked at common patterns of human rights violations across regions. The pooled information collected both at the regional and national consultations fed into WGHR's stakeholders' report that was submitted to OHCHR on the 28th of November 2011.