The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a cyclical review process of all 193 UN Member States. Once every four years the human rights situation in each State is reviewed. The State under review declares what action has been taken and the measures to be adopted to improve human rights within the Country. During the UPR, specific recommendations are made by the Member States of the Human Rights Council to the State under review. The 43rd UPR session was held from May 1 to 12 in Palais des Nations, Geneva. Among other...

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a cyclical review process of all 193 UN Member States. Once every four years the human rights situation in each State is reviewed. The State under review declares what action has been taken and the measures to be adopted to improve human rights within the Country. During the UPR, specific recommendations are made by the Member States of the Human Rights Council to the State under review. The UPR sessions for Argentina, Benin, and Zambia were held between the 23rd and 30th of January...

On December 7, IIMA Human Rights Office participated in the UPR pre-session of Venezuela by supporting the intervention of Ms. Norayma Angel, Director of the Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Vicariato Apostólico de Puerto Ayacucho (Amazonas). In her statement, Norayma presented the situation of indigenous people, and in particular their right to self-determination, right to land and its links with mineral extraction, right to health and education. During the previous UPR of Venezuela in 2016, several States expressed their concern and gave a series of recommendations on the right to self-determination and...

IIMA Members from PNG, Sr. Pamela Vecina and Sr. Alice Fulgencio, participated at the in-country consultation for Papua New Guinea’s Universal Periodic Review held at Emmaus Conference Center, Port Moresby, from February 15-17, 2021. They represented the Istituto Internazionale Maria Ausiliatrice (IIMA). A total of twenty five representatives of various NGOs working on several human rights issues across the country attended the conference. The three-day conference-workshop was a project sponsored by the International Catholic Center of Geneva (CCIG). The project’s aim is to help civil society actors to acquire a methodology...

The 37th Universal Periodic Review Working Group (UPRWG) Session was held from the 18th to the 29th of January 2021. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the Human Rights Council that reviews the human rights situation of each of the 193 UN Member States once every 4 ½ years. It provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and which recommendations they will have to implement before the next review. Istituto Internazionale Maria...

On October 29, 2020, IIMA Human Rights Office participated in the Online Training organized by the International Catholic Center of Geneva (CCIG) and UPR Info on “Human Rights Indicators for Monitoring UPR Progress”. The training aimed to highlight the crucial role of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) in the monitoring of the government’s action on the UPR Recommendations, through the use of Human Rights Indicators. The latter are specifically designed to measure whether Human Rights are effectively implemented within a given State, especially for the most vulnerable groups. In order to ensure...

The United Nations Human Rights Council held its forty-fifth session from 14 September to 6 October 2020 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, opened the session by providing updates of the human rights situations worldwide and by leading an interactive dialogue on the human rights implications on the COVID-19 Pandemic. Statements by the International Labour Organization, World Health Organization, among other speakers, all highlighted the crucial impact of the pandemic on vulnerable populations including: children, women, indigenous peoples, people with disabilities,...

The 35th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held from the 20th to the 31st of January at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The Universal Periodic Review is a mechanism of the Human Rights Council. Its primary function is to review all UN Member States, every 4 ½ years, to improve the human rights conditions of each State. During the UPR, States comment on the actions they’ve taken to implement previous UPR recommendations and highlight the current challenges they are facing. The UPR Working Group then derives...

The 31st session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held from 5 - 16 November 2018 in Palais des Nations in Geneva. The UPR is a mechanism of the Human Rights Council, which evaluates UN member states every four years, and provides the state with recommendations to improve human rights conditions.  IIMA creates and submits reports to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, detailing the status of women’s and children’s rights. These reports are then read by other UN states who use this information to formulate...

The 30th Session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group concluded on 18th May 2018. It was held from the 7th to the 18th of May, at Palais des Nations in Geneva where it reviewed the human rights situation on the ground of 14 States. The UPR is a mechanism of the Human Rights Council which reviews the human rights situation of each of the 193 UN Member States once every four years and a half. It provides an opportunity for all States to declare what actions they have...