UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
The UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanismof the UN Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State, regardless of their membership in specific human rights treaties, to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years. The UPR was established when the Human Rights Council was created in 2006 by the UN General Assembly in resolution 60/251. The first reviews were conducted in 2008. The goal of UPR is to improve the human rights situation in every country. The reviews are conducted by the states, not expert bodies; specifically, by the UPR Working Group which consists of the 47 members of the Council, but any UN Member State can take part in the discussion with the reviewed States. Each State review is assisted by groups of three States, known as “troikas”, who serve as rapporteurs. The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) information provided by the State under review, which can take the form of a “national report”; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information from other stakeholders including national human rights institutions and NGOs. Following the review by the Working Group, a report is prepared by the troika with the involvement of the State under review. This report, referred to as the “outcome report”, provides a summary of the actual discussion; it consists of the questions, comments and recommendations made by States to the country under review, as well as the responses by the reviewed State. Since the first periodic review in 2008, all 193 UN Member States have been reviewed three times. The fourth cycle of review began in November 2022. In the first cycle of the UPR process, minority issues were prominently addressed: 112 countries issued a total of 895 recommendations related to minority issues, which were directed towards 137 countries.