23/04/2010

Seminar in Montreux on the HRC review

The Swiss Conferedation together with the Swiss Permanent Mission to the United Nations organised on Tuesday 20 a one-day seminar on the Human Rights Council's review. Participants included staff from Permanent missions, OHCHR and NGOs. The seminar held plenary meetings on lessons learnt from the Institution-Building Package Negotiation process and on the proceedings of the upcoming review as well as four working groups on the UPR and the Complaint procedure; the Special procedures and the Advisory Committee; the Agenda, Programme of Work and Methods of Work; and the Tools of the Council to address situations of violations of Human rights. UPR Info was invited to the seminar and participated in the group on the UPR.

Participants shared their ideas on what needed to be changed in the UPR and their proposals to improve its functioning. Many asked for the review to be longer and the cycle to be of five years instead of four. Some delegates complained about the problem in the translation of documents as well as the list of speakers. The high number of recommendations made was also underlined as a major challenge for States under Review in the implementation process. Finally, the role of troika was also discussed as well as the format of responses to recommendations and the second cycle.