NGOs

National consultation

According to the above mentioned resolution, “States are encouraged to prepare the information through a broad consultation process at the national level with all relevant stakeholders”. NGOs can seize this opportunity to run a national campaign to promote the UPR and bring it to the attention of the general public and the media.

Submitting a report on a country’s situation

The review of a country during the Working Group is based on three reports:
 One, of about twenty pages, prepared by the State itself on its human rights situation.
 One prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on “information contained in the reports of treaty bodies, special procedures, including observations and comments by the State concerned, and other relevant official United Nations documents, which shall not exceed ten pages” (Resolution A/HRC/5/1).
 Finally, the OHCHR will prepare a compilation of ten pages of all information sent by “other relevant stakeholders to the UPR” on the human rights situation of the State under review.

The term “other relevant stakeholders” is purposefully vague so no actor would be restricted from participating. Basically, anyone is allowed to send information to the OHCHR. NGOs without Consultative status, local NGOs and associations are more than welcome to participate. Nonetheless the OHCHR will only use credible and reliable information coming from identified and trusted sources.

To limit the amount of information received from NGOs, the OHCHR asks individual stakeholders to limit their official submission to a five page document, to which other information can be attached. When the information is submitted by a large coalition of NGOs, the official submission can reach ten pages. The deadline for the submission of information is about five months before the session.

The deadline for session 3 in December has passed.

The deadlines for session 4 held from 2 to 13 February 2009 are:
. 1 September 2008 for submissions on Cameroon, Djibouti, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, Bangladesh, China and Jordan; and
. 8 September 2008 for submissions on Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Russian Federation and Azerbaijan.

See also the "Technical guidelines for the submission of stakeholders’ information".

Lobbying States

Following consultations and meetings with other NGOs during the first and the second UPR sessions, representatives from such organizations have identified the following lobbying strategies

NGOs can lobby States in order to bring to their attention some specific issues and to obtain that such issues be addressed during the interactive dialogue, in the form of questions and/or recommendations. NGOs can also lobby to obtain specific recommendations to be made, so to facilitate the monitoring of the follow-up process.

For practical lobbying examples, read these interesting documents on lobbying other States prior to the review:

 Conectas, Suggestions of questions and recommendations to be addressed to Brazil for the UPR

 Oceania Human Rights: FRANCE: Focusing Specifically on Indigenous Peoples in the Pacific

When lobbying other States, there are different ways to be more efficient by:

 Addressing the delegation representative who is in charge of the UPR or the Human Rights Council
 Addressing States according to the thematic issues they address more often during the interactive dialogue.

Attending the Working Group

According to resolution A/HRC/RES/5/1, “Other relevant stakeholders may attend the review in the working group”. Which means NGOs will not be allowed to take the floor.

Holding a parallel event

As during the Human Rights Council, NGOs have the possibility to hold parallel events during the Working Group session.

Assessment meetings

NGOs can conduct assessment meetings in the days following the review of a specific State, in order to evaluate the review and the extent to which some issues have (or not) been addressed, and to prepare the follow-up.

Press conference/release

NGOs can hold press conference and/or issue press releases on the reviews to give their assessment of the review.

As resolution A/HRC/RES/5/1 puts it, it is possible for NGOs “to make general comments before the adoption of the outcome by the plenary,” which means that during the plenary session, before the member-States adopt the outcome, and after the State under Review and and other States have spoken (20 minutes each), 20 minutes is allocated to NGOs to take the floor and make a statement.

For more details on how to take the floor, see the HRC website.

The aim of the Universal Periodic Review is to help States improve the human rights situation. The outcome, a report, should contain recommendations, technical advice and goals to be achieved in the four years before the next review. During the following review, States will be judged on their accomplishments during these four years.

NGOs have a great role to play in monitoring efforts made by governments. They can:
 Make HRC recommendations public;
 Make sure they are followed by the State under review.

 OHCHR "Information and guidelines for relevant stakeholders" from 1 July 2008.

 "Technical guidelines for the submission of stakeholders’ information".

 OHCHR Information Note for NGOs regarding the UPR mechanism (as of 8 January 2008).

 Human Rights Tribune, "Egypt would censor NGOs at UN", 10 June 2008.

 Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) "Civil Society Involvement in the UPR - the example of Indonesia". Parallel event to the 7 the session of the Human Rights Council, Geneva, 17 March 2008

 Oceania Human Rights: FRANCE: Focusing Specifically on Indigenous Peoples in the Pacific

 Conectas, Suggestions of questions and recommendations to be addressed to Brazil for the UPR