19/11/2015

Identifiying best practices: an analysis of national reports

UPR Info is pleased to share its latest publication, Identifying best practices: An analysis of national reports. As the second cycle of the UPR focuses notably on the implementation of past recommendations, reporting has become a key factor not only for achieving an accurate picture of the human rights situation of the country but also to ensure a smooth running of the mechanism and a logical sequence between cycles. UPR Info has therefore considered useful to analyse the reporting practices by States under Review in order to identify patterns and best practices and to provide States with suggestions in order to improve the quality of their own reports. 

With this purpose in mind, this analysis is the result of a study of a total of 84 national reports submitted by States reviewed during the first six sessions of the second UPR cycle (sessions 13 to 18 - May 2012 to January 2014). This study identifies best practices that States should take on board while drafting their national reports such as:

- Reporting on the implementation (or the lack of it) of all accepted and noted recommendations received during the previous review;
- Reporting on the improvements made concerning the voluntary pledges made during the previous cycle;
- Including information dating from the last four years only;   
- Detailing the outcome of the consultations with civil society;
- Using annexes, in English, to report notably the level of implementation of each recommendation is strongly encouraged.

UPR Info hopes this study will be useful to States preparing for their review and offers its support in that regard.