Modalities and Practices for the Universal Periodic Review Process

A/HRC/PRST/8/1View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Presidential Statement of the Human Rights Council, published in 2008.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 4	Supporting the Human Rights Council, its subsidiary bodies and mechanisms	56

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Entity	(Sub-)Programme	Title	Total mandates cited	Expenditure
	Subprogramme 4	Supporting the Human Rights Council, its subsidiary bodies and mechanisms	56	—

Historical expenditure covers the complete programme or subprogramme, not this mandate. For an overview of all UN entities and programmes, see UN entities and programmes.

What subjects does this mandate have?

3 subjects

Human Rights Recommendations Working Groups

What’s in this document?

19 operative paragraphs

States that wish to raise questions and/or issues with the State under review may do so via the troika, which shall relay them to the Secretariat. These questions and/or issues should conform to the basis of the review, as identified by the Human Rights Council in paragraph 1 of the annex to its resolution 5/1 on institution-building of the Council, and shall be raised in a manner that is consistent with the principles and objectives of the universal periodic review, as stated in resolution 5/1, and be based mainly on the three universal periodic review documents.

The Secretariat shall then transmit all questions and/or issues to the State under review no later than 10 working days before the date of the review in the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review.

The troika members shall cluster the questions and/or issues in accordance with the content and the structure of the report prepared by the State under review.

As the universal periodic review is, inter alia, a transparent process, the questions and/or issues will be circulated among Member and Observer States after being relayed to the State under review.

The State under review is sovereign in addressing the questions and/or issues it chooses to answer of those transmitted to it by the troika members or raised during the proceedings of the Working Group.

II.Modalities for the Review in the Working Group

The interactive dialogue of the universal periodic review exercise takes place solely in the Working Group of the Universal Periodic Review.

The State under review will be given up to 60 minutes in the Working Group, to be used for:

Initial presentation of the national report/responses to written questions;

Replies to the questions raised from the floor during the interactive dialogue, if desired;

Concluding comments at the end of the review, in an interactive dialogue under the guidance of the President.

III.Report of the Working Group

The Working Group shall prepare a factual report of its proceedings, consisting of a summary of the interactive dialogue, which will reflect recommendations and/or conclusions made by delegations during the interactive dialogue.

The report of the Working Group shall be prepared by the troika by fully involving the State under review and with the assistance of the Secretariat.

The State under review is expected to examine all recommendations made, in accordance with the provisions of the annex to Council resolution 5/1. In all cases, the recommendations that enjoy the support of the State under review are to be identified as such. Other recommendations, together with the comments of the State under review, are to be noted. Both will be included in the report of the Working Group, to be adopted by the Council at its plenary session. The State under review is expected to follow up on the recommendations that enjoy its support as well as on voluntary commitments and pledges.

The State under review will inform the Council about its views concerning the recommendations and/or conclusions as well as voluntary commitments/pledges whenever it is in a position to do so, during the meeting of the Working Group, or between the session of the Working Group and the next session of the Council, or during the meeting of the Council at its plenary session.

IV.Modalities at the plenary session

The review process starts at Working Group level and ends with the adoption of the outcome of the review by the Council at its plenary session.

The report of the Working Group, together with the views of the State under review concerning the recommendations and/or conclusions, as well as voluntary commitments made by the State under review and replies presented by the State under review before the adoption of the outcome by the Council at its plenary session to questions or issues that were not sufficiently addressed during the interactive dialogue in the Working Group, will constitute the outcome of the review, which shall be adopted by the Council at its plenary session through a standardized decision.

A summary of the views expressed on the outcome of the review by the State under review and of Member and Observer States of the Council, as well as general comments made by other relevant stakeholders before the adoption of the outcome by the plenary, will be included in the report of the Council session.

V.General modalities

Only the three documents mentioned in paragraph 15 of the annex to Council resolution 5/1 as constituting the basis of the review will be posted on the Extranet.

The Council will consider favourably the adoption of a decision on the webcasting of all public proceedings of its various working groups, taking into account the principles of transparency, equal treatment and non-selectivity.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

II.Modalities for the Review in the Working Group

III.Report of the Working Group

IV.Modalities at the plenary session

V.General modalities

Table of contents

Who cites this mandate in the budget?