Universal Periodic Review Mechanism Research Articles

United Nation’s Universal Periodic Review Mechanism on Human Rights: Results and Challenges

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism to review the human rights situation for all UN member states. This paper provides some analysis of the impact and effectiveness of the UPR mechanism since its establishment in 2006. By looking at the achieved results and limitations of the UPR, this article argues that after nearly two decades of operation, the mechanism needs to be comprehensively evaluated by the United Nations and relevant stakeholders to make necessary adjustments to enhance the effectiveness of this global human rights monitoring mechanism. The article also takes Vietnam’s participation as an illustration of how UPR mechanism works at the national level.

Monitoring Human Rights: The Experience of the UPR Brazil Coalition

This article explores the creation of the UPR Brazil Coalition, a civil society network that monitors human rights using the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a United Nations mechanism. It first presents the importance of social participation for the rule of law and for the Brazilian democratic legal system. In then introduces the UPR mechanism, including its creation in 2006, the basic aspects of its operation, and the three Brazilian review cycles. The article then discusses Brazilian civil society’s engagement with the UPR and the creation and current activities of the UPR Brazil Coalition, the main network that monitors the human rights situation in Brazil by means of evaluating implementation of UPR recommendations.

Universal periodic review as a migration desecuritization instrument

For the last decades, it was observed that the migration subject was addressed as a security issue due to a social construction proposed by the state that sees immigrants as a threat to security, in which they are subconsciously considered as “the other”. Thus, migration issues started to be analyzed under the security bias, which resulted in the topic being securitized instead of politicized and discussed by all sectors of society and under the human rights scope. In 2006 the United Nations Human Rights Council created the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, which allows all UN member states to have their human rights situations reviewed every four years and a half. In this respect, the paper aims at presenting how the UPR mechanism may be a tool to desecuritize the migration subject by using Spain as a study case, which is the country that receives more recommendations about migrants among all UN member states. Therefore, the research focuses on a comprehensive evaluation of documents on Spain outcomes in the first two UPR cycles, in order to identify the main recommendations about the migration subject and to understand the interventions related to Spain's position on accepting or not such recommendations. The purpose here is to check the effectiveness of the UPR as a tool that may contribute to the desecuritization of the migration subject under the human rights perspective. The research focuses on a review of documents and bibliographic references, with a qualitative approach and exploratory nature. The initial result points out that the interactive discussion promoted by the UPR mechanism can help support to desecuritize the migrant issue.

(Geo)Politics of Universal Periodic Review: Why States Issue and Accept Human Rights Recommendations?

Abstract The research identifies geographic proximity as the crucial driving force behind state behavior in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Looking at both stages of the UPR mechanism, we pose two questions: what best explains states issuing human rights recommendations and what best explains states accepting those recommendations? Our model controls for a variety of alternative explanations—state capacity, international structure, and international institutions. The results show that the closer the states are, the more likely it is that they will issue each other recommendations; however, the closer the states are, the less likely it is that they will accept recommendations from one another. We also find an important caveat: the logic of issuance and acceptance of recommendations is reversed when it comes to neighboring states. The latter speaks against general international relations literature, where sharing a border and geographic proximity are both associated with increasing the likelihood of conflict.

Challenging impunity in Indonesia and the Philippines through the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism

ABSTRACT Since 2008 the United Nations Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism has regularly reviewed every state’s human rights record. Any civil society organisation can submit a report to the review, thus opening up participation for a wide range of organisations that had not previously directly engaged with the United Nations system. This article analyses the ways that civil society organisations (CSOs) from the Philippines and Indonesia—both countries with significant impunity problems and few options for engaging with the international legal system—have used the UPR in their anti-impunity advocacy. The article draws on documentary records from the UPR and semi-structured qualitative interviews with representatives from these local CSOs to analyse why and how anti-impunity activists engage with the process. It shows that their engagement has no measurable direct benefit but may indirectly strengthen anti-impunity campaigns by raising international awareness about the problem. Given the dearth of accountability mechanisms to provide remedies for mass atrocity in these countries, activists are motivated to engage less by evidence that the UPR tangibly addresses the impunity problem than by an absence of more effective alternatives.

Engagin with the UM Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review mechanism as na Academic Stakeholder

Engagin with the UM Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review mechanism as na Academic Stakeholder

Nigeria's Engagement with the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review: Potential for Acculturation or Risk of Regression?

This article examines the effectiveness of Nigeria's engagement with the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review Mechanism (UPR). Now into the third cycle of the UPR, questions on the impact of the UPR process on the ground are gaining increasing attention and there is now a growing focus on state implementation of UPR recommendations. This article analyses the extent of Nigeria's engagement with the UPR mechanism with a focus on UPR I and II. It considers the potential for acculturation and the extent to which the government's fight against terrorism has affected its engagement with the UPR mechanism.

African States: Themes Emerging from the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review

AbstractThis article examines the themes emerging from the engagement of African states with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Council. The underlying principles of universality, cooperation and dialogue that guide the review have given African states a renewed sense of engagement with the international human rights institution. Despite the universality of the process, regionalism and cultural relativism are important aspects in the engagement of African states with the UPR mechanism. This article considers the extent to which regionalism and cultural relativism may prevent UPR from acting as an effective mechanism for human rights enforcement. It examines the potential for UPR to complement other national, regional and international human rights mechanisms, and the danger of state ritualism. These have ramifications for the extent to which UPR can achieve its goal of improving the human rights situation on the ground in Africa.

Nigeria's Engagement with the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review: Potential for Acculturation or Risk of Regression?

This article examines the effectiveness of Nigeria’s engagement with the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Mechanism (UPR). After two cycles of the UPR, questions on the impact of the UPR process on the ground is gaining increasing attention and there is now a growing focus on state implementation of UPR recommendations. This article engages with this issue in the context of Nigeria. It analyses the extent of Nigeria’s engagement with the UPR mechanism and considers the potential for acculturation. Given the threat of terrorism which continues to confront Nigeria, this article examines the extent to which the Nigerian government’s fight against terrorism has impacted on its engagement with the UPR mechanism.

The effectiveness of South Africa’s engagement with the universal periodic review (UPR): potential for ritualism?

This article examines the effectiveness of South Africa’s engagement with the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Mechanism (UPR). After two cycles of the UPR, questions on the ability of the UPR mechanism to improve the human rights situation on the ground is gaining increasing attention. This article underscores the value of cooperation and dialogue in monitoring human rights implementation. It analyses the extent of South Africa’s engagement with the UPR mechanism and considers the potential impact of human rights ritualism in the UPR engagement of South Africa.

O Direito à Saúde como um direito humano em Moçambique

O presente artigo analisa a questão do acesso e disponibilidades dos serviços de saúde e medicamentos essências como componentes do direito à saúde, concentrando-se nas obrigações do Estado moçambicano resultantes dos instrumentos internacionais de direitos humanos em particular na vertente dos direitos económicos, socais e culturais, tendo em conta a vulnerabilidade da população moçambicana para doenças endémicas, em particular a malária. A abordagem considera a recente avaliação de desempenho de Moçambique relativa aos direitos humanos no que concerne ao direito à saúde através do Mecanismo de Revisão Periódica Universal. O artigo foca nos 4 critérios de abordagem dos Direitos Humanos fixados pela ONU e que constituem a base da avaliação da situação do direito a saúde em Moçambique: Disponibilidade, Acessibilidade, Aceitabilidade e Qualidade (DAAQ) e como o quadro legal moçambicano vigente responde as obrigações internacionais de protecção do direito à saúde.

The Significance of an Evolving Relationship: ASEAN States and the Global Human Rights Mechanisms

This article analyses the changing nature and level of engagement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) States and the global human rights mechanisms especially the Universal Periodic Review mechanism. The relationship is significant for several reasons. It provides valuable insights into how these States approach the interpretation and application of human rights as well as the extent to which they are willing to open up to external scrutiny of their domestic human rights record. It calls into question claims that there is a collective approach to human rights within ASEAN, specifically one that embodies Asian Values or Asia’s Different Standard on human rights. As this study shows, the approach of ASEAN States is far more complex, heterogeneous and dynamic than such claims would suggest. Above all, by analysing the relationship between ASEAN States and the global human rights mechanisms, it is possible to place recent human rights developments in ASEAN within their broader normative and institutional context.

Comparing Peer Reviews: The Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council and the African Peer Review Mechanism

Abstract The Universal Periodic Review Mechanism (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) reflect a growing trend in international organizations to utilize peer review processes to assess and improve member state governance and human rights performance. The two mechanisms are distinct in many ways. For example, the APRM undertakes a more in-depth and rigorous examination of a broader range of issues. Both review mechanisms, however, also have similarities e.g. they emphasize follow-up and actions to be taken as a result of the reviews and are products of a consensus decision-making process based on voluntary engagement. They represent an evolutionary process by which international norms can be integrated in a national context.

Canada, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and Universal Periodic Review

Canada, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and Universal Periodic Review

Rhetorical Inaction? Compliance and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations

The Human Rights Council of the United Nations was inaugurated in 2006 to much acclaim. Promising to defuse the tensions that had overwhelmed its maligned predecessor, the Commission on Human Rights, the council is based on the belief that depoliticizing human-rights discussions would enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations in the realm of human-rights promotion. This article investigates just what type of compliance pressure the council, particularly through its Universal Periodic Review mechanism, has been able to develop over countries through comparing the genesis and workings of the council to existing accounts of how actors influence each other in international politics. It is argued that the reforms instigated by the council may have shifted the system away from the overt politicization previously experienced, but they have certainly not removed totally the role of state politics in rights promotion. As such, they represent conceptually a middle position, identified by Thomas Risse, known as “rhetorical action.” Identifying this allows for an analysis of the potential success of the council, as existing accounts of this type of compliance pressure have developed “scope conditions” about what the precursors for successful compliance are. Using these conditions, the article concludes that the council's prospects may not live up to the acclaim that surrounded its creation.

The Universal Periodic Review Mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council - Focus on Korean's Experience and It's Assessment

The Universal Periodic Review Mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council - Focus on Korean's Experience and It's Assessment

The Universal Periodic Review Mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council - Focus on Korean's Experience and It's Assessment

The Universal Periodic Review Mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council - Focus on Korean's Experience and It's Assessment