How the UPR Trust Funds support States throughout the UPR cycle

At the 62nd session of the Human Rights Council, OHCHR presented two reports on the operations of the UPR Voluntary Funds: the Voluntary Fund for Participation in the Universal Periodic Review and the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance in the Implementation of the UPR.

Read together, the reports show how these funds support States across the full UPR cycle: from preparing national reports and participating in reviews in Geneva to translating accepted recommendations into concrete action at the national level.

“The fund has proven instrumental in translating recommendations into tangible results by providing seed funding for priority initiatives across regions," said Mr. Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, Director of the Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms.

This was particularly visible in 2025, when the two funds supported engagement and implementation efforts across all regions, with a continued focus on least developed countries and small island developing States.

Enabling meaningful participation in the UPR

The Voluntary Fund for Participation plays a key role in ensuring that all States, including those with limited resources or without permanent representation in Geneva, can take part in the UPR process. In 2025, the Fund supported 14 delegates from eligible countries to participate in the 48th, 49th and 50th sessions of the UPR Working Group, including representatives from Angola, Fiji, The Gambia, Madagascar, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Jamaica, Liberia, Malawi, Maldives and the Marshall Islands. Of these delegates, 10 were women and 4 were men. Since its establishment, the Fund has enabled the participation of 276 delegates from 119 States, including 71 least developed countries or small island developing States.

The Fund provides direct support for in-person participation. This is not merely logistical. By covering travel and subsistence costs for eligible delegations, the Fund helps ensure that States can present their national reports, explain their context, engage in dialogue with other States and take ownership of the recommendations they receive.

The Fund also supports States before the review, at country level. In 2025, UPR advisers and OHCHR staff supported preparatory processes in countries including Eswatini, Ethiopia, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Liberia, Malawi, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, the Republic of Moldova, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Solomon Islands and Tajikistan. In Liberia, for example, support to the national mechanism for implementation, reporting and follow-up included drafting sessions, consultations with government institutions, the national human rights institution, civil society, the diplomatic community and the United Nations country team, as well as a validation workshop. This contributed to a more structured, evidence-based national report and helped build national ownership of the process.

Turning recommendations into action

The second report focuses on the Voluntary Fund for Financial and Technical Assistance in the Implementation of the UPR. In 2025, the Fund and UPR advisers supported activities across Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, West, Central, East and Southern Africa, and South-East Asia. The Fund received 34 project proposals and supported 30 initiatives, while technical support was provided in 27 States, with additional countries assisted through regional advisers and treaty body capacity-building staff.

Below are three selected examples of projects delivered in 2025.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, OHCHR engaged with the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees, the national human rights institution, Members of Parliament, the United Nations country team, civil society organizations and human rights defenders to support follow-up to UPR recommendations. As a result, recommendations from the fourth cycle were integrated into the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for 2026–2030 and into the work of the United Nations country team’s Disability Inclusion Working Group. The support also contributed to discussions with parliamentarians and organizations of persons with disabilities on participation in public affairs and value-added tax exemptions for essential assistive devices, leading to a draft decision to establish an advisory body of persons with disabilities within the Parliamentary Assembly and to a legislative initiative on tax exemptions for assistive devices.

Benin

In Benin, the Voluntary Fund supported capacity-building initiatives at the request of the Benin Human Rights Commission and the Ministry of Justice. These included a workshop on human rights monitoring in the context of elections, using gender-sensitive and disability-inclusive methods, as well as an induction workshop for members of the Benin Human Rights Commission on the Paris Principles and the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. The Fund also supported a communication campaign in local languages to raise awareness of 22 UPR recommendations among vulnerable groups, and training for members of the national mechanism for implementation, reporting and follow-up on developing an indicator framework linked to the national plan for implementing human rights recommendations.

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, the Fund supported the Supreme Court in strengthening the judiciary’s response to gender-based violence against Indigenous women. Two high-level meetings were held in the Talamanca Bribri and Térraba Indigenous territories, bringing together Indigenous women leaders, senior judicial authorities and judicial personnel. The initiative helped identify follow-up measures, including better coordination with Indigenous leaders, the integration of intercultural and gender perspectives into judicial practice, and more systematic use of international human rights standards.

Other examples from the report point in the same direction. In Cabo Verde, the Fund supported efforts to integrate economic, social and cultural rights into national development planning. In Turkmenistan, it supported a participatory legislative review aligned with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, contributing to recommendations for reform and the development of a draft national disability strategy. Together, these initiatives show how UPR recommendations can become entry points for legal reform, institutional strengthening and more inclusive public policy.

A growing demand, but fragile funding

The reports also underline a key challenge: demand for support is growing, but funding remains limited and unpredictable. In 2025, the Voluntary Fund for Participation received USD 182,614 in contributions from six States. This was an increase compared with 2024, but still below the Fund’s average annual contributions since its establishment. Its expenditure reached USD 232,794, with a balance of USD 561,447 at the end of the year.

The Implementation Fund received USD 503,726 in 2025, including contributions from eight States and the International Organisation of la Francophonie. During the same period, it supported 30 initiatives, allocated USD 728,209 and recorded expenditures of USD 579,363.42, leaving a balance of just over USD 1.1 million at the end of the year. The report notes that OHCHR had to closely monitor expenditures to preserve sufficient reserves.

Looking ahead, the sustainability issue is clear. Both reports also stress the importance of UPR advisers deployed in OHCHR regional offices under Human Rights Council resolution 51/30. Their funding is currently foreseen only until the end of the fourth UPR cycle, in mid-2027.

To preserve these gains, respond to growing requests for assistance and avoid disruption as the fifth cycle approaches, predictable and sustained support will be essential.