09/10/2015

A new trend in reframing UPR recommendations in Session 21

The 21st Session of the UPR Working Group, held in January 2015, saw the 14 States under Review (SuR); Armenia, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey, have their human rights records and compliance peer reviewed.
 
A total of 2769 recommendations were made during Session 21. This overtakes Session 20 as one of the top three sessions generating the most recommendations in the second cycle of the UPR. Of the recommendations received 73.5% were accepted with Kuwait and Turkey receiving the most recommendations, with 297 and 288 respectively. Again the three themes to receive the most recommendations were international instruments, women’s rights and the rights of the child, in line with the existing pattern within the UPR.
           
Session 21 has recorded the highest number of recommendations, at 37%, requiring specific action, from the 2nd cycle of the UPR. This, and the increase in the number of recommendations that referred to the first cycle, builds on previous sessions and indicates an emerging pattern of recommendations. This pattern demonstrates that states are becoming increasingly aware of circumstances where SuR fail to implement recommendations and are altering the nature of their recommendations to ensure positive action on the part of the SuR. This is a promising development for the UPR process as it moves to the end of its second cycle.

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