01/10/2021

Publication of Model UPR Handbook!

We are very thrilled to announce that the University of Padua published the Model UPR Handbook -- A Guide to design and implement a Model UN featuring the Universal Periodic Review

UPR Info is proud to be one of the partners of  the Human Rights Centre “Antonio Papisca” of the University of Padova, together with the UPR Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
 

The Padova Model UPR is an academic simulation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a unique United Nations (UN) mechanism which reviews the human rights records of all UN Member States.

Watch the video presenting the programme here. 

Model UPR Handbook

This model offers participants an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms and dynamics of the UPR procedure held in Geneva. By playing the roles of State delegates, NGOs, and National Human Rights Institutions, participants will gain experience in the UPR procedure, which involves assessing States’ human rights records and addressing human rights violations. Professors of the University of Padova and Padova’s Human Rights Centre, along with the student Secretariat, will provide professional guidance and support throughout the event. Participating teams will be assigned different roles, including States under review, the Troika States, reviewing States, and Civil Society Organisations, and will interact within the UPR Working Group and the sessions of the Human Rights Council. During the simulation, participants will analyse the human rights performance of the concerned States, take part in the interactive debate, and adopt the final lists of accepted and noted recommendations.

 

The Handbook results from a collective work carried out by master’s students of the University of Padua and former delegates to the 2018, 2019 and 2020 editions of the Padova Model UPR. We hope that this handbook will encourage more and more students and teachers to implement the Padova Model UPR. The Model UPR may contribute to socializing among the youth a critical and articulated knowledge of this human rights procedure and eventually increase the civil society active participation in the multi-level machinery of human rights promotion and protection.

Read UPR Info’s Statement during Item 6 of the HRC 48th session announcing the Model UPR Handbook