18/05/2009

UPR Working Group concludes fifth session

On Friday 15th, the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review concluded its fifth session with the adoption of the Reports on Vanuatu, Macedonia, Comoros and Slovakia.

The session, held from 1 to 15 May, also reviewed the following States: Central African Republic, Monaco, Belize, Chad, Congo, Malta, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Chile, Viet Nam, Uruguay and Yemen.

This fifth session did not encounter the difficulties met during the previous one.

Thus, no problem occurred with the registration on the list of speakers and delegates did not have to queue from 7 am. Only the review of Viet Nam had more than the sixty States that can be allocated in the interactive dialogue thus preventing an additional sixteen from taking the floor.

Only three reports of the Working Group, instead of thirteen at the previous session, exceeded the word limit. For Afghanistan and Yemen, to ensure that the reports would be translated into the five other United Nations official languages, a new and shorter format was chosen mentioning recommendations only in section II. However, for the report on Viet Nam, the former format was kept and its translation remains therefore uncertain.

Also noteworthy, States under Review dedicated more time to respond to advance questions. Among others, Congo took more than ten minutes and Malta thirty, that is half of its speaking time.

Finally, among good practices witnessed were Comoros' choice to list rejected recommendations in section II instead of just paragraph numbers and Uruguay's acceptance of all recommendations made.