ABOUT THE UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process of the UN Human Rights Council whereby each of the 193 UN Member States are reviewed on its entire human rights record every four and a half years. The UPR is a powerful tool to hold governments accountable for sexual rights violations and to advocate for changes to particular laws and policies that impact on human rights related to sexuality, gender and reproduction. For more information on the UPR process and how to get involved, please see the SRI & IPPF UPR Toolkit and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
THE SRI & UPR
The SRI has been actively involved in the UPR process since its establishment in 2006 and has collaborated with over 150 national and regional organizations, activists and academics in more than 100 countries to consistently raise sexual rights at every UPR session. The SRI is committed to ensuring sexual rights are systematically integrated into the UPR process as a critical means of ensuring accountability for human rights obligations related to gender, sexuality and reproduction. For more information on the SRI’s work with the UPR or to collaborate with the SRI on a UPR submission, please click here
EXPORTING DATA TO CSV
Google Chrome: click on export to CSV button and the data will automatically download into an Excel spreadsheet
Apple Safari: click on the export to CSV button - a new tab will open with the data - click on File - Save as - select Page Source from the format drop down menu - give the file a unique name with a .csv extension - click save - open the saved file with Excel on your computer.
UNDERSTANDING DATABASE SEARCH PARAMETERS
- State under Review
Every UN Member State that has undergone the UPR process is listed under this heading.
- Reference Type
Recommendations made to the State under Review
Voluntary commitments made by the State under Review
Questions asked by States before or during the Review
UN Documentation includes UN Compilation and Stakeholder Summary reports
Statement by State under Review includes statements made by the State under Review when rejecting a recommendation or providing an unclear response
Comment, includes both comments made by States that were not followed up with recommendations, and comments made by non-State stakeholders during the adoption of UPR outcomes on matters not covered in recommendations, voluntary commitments, questions or comments by States
- Source of Reference
References in the database come from UN Member States and Permanent Observers that have made a sexual rights-related intervention in another State’s UPR process (Recommending State) and the official documentation used to form the basis of the reviews (Review Documentation).
- Recommending State
Every UN Member State and Permanent Observer that has made a sexual rights-related intervention in another State’s UPR process including recommendations, questions or comments.
- Review Documentation
Each State’s UPR is based on four main documents:
- National Report: a report prepared by the State under Review on progress it has made in implementing previous UPR recommendations and other human rights obligations
- UN Compilation: a report prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner which includes all concluding observations/recommendations made by treaty monitoring bodies, special procedures and other UN entities
- Stakeholder Summary: summary of information submitted by non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions
- Outcome Report: the final report of the UPR process where States indicate which recommendations they accept, reject or note, any explanations of positions and voluntary commitments.
- Status:
Recommendations made within the UPR are met with a variety of responses by States under Review. States have the option to ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ or ‘note’ recommendations. In some cases, however, they provide ‘no response’. In other cases, the State under Review made remarks but did not clearly accept or reject the recommendation (which is common for recommendations that are ‘noted’), these responses are marked as ‘unclear’. In other instances, States have indicated that a recommendation is ‘partially accepted’ without elaborating whether a specific portion is accepted and the status of the remaining portion.
Excerpted information from UN Compilation and Stakeholder Summary reports that has not been addressed in recommendations, voluntary commitments or questions has been marked ‘neglected’.
When Recommending States ask a question or make a comment to the State under Review either in writing before the review or orally during the review but do not follow up with a related recommendation, the status is marked as ‘Not followed up with a recommendation.’
- Cycle or Session
A UPR cycle includes the reviews of all 193 Member States once. A UPR cycle lasts approximately 4.5 years. Searching by cycle can be helpful if the user does not know the exact date of a UPR session or to make comparisons between different cycles. The third UPR cycle began in 2017.
A UPR session includes specific Member States that are reviewed at a specific time. A UPR session lasts for two weeks and usually three UPR sessions take place per year.
- Implementation Notes
If the State under Review or a stakeholder has provided information in the official documentation on the progress of a recommendation's implementation, the information is included in the Implementation Notes section of the results.
Use this search filter to include or exclude recommendations with implementation notes and/or to search for keywords contained only within the implementation notes.
SEARCH TIPS
After you run a search and receive results, you can continue adding more parameters to refine the results further. All search criteria entered remain active until the search is cleared, by clicking on the RESET button.
Leaving a field blank will return all results. For example, if the "Recommending State" field is left blank, the search will return all related recommendations from all States.
ABBREVIATIONS
Treaties
ICCPR - International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
ICESCR - International Covenant on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights
CEDAW - Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women
CRC - Convention on the Rights of the Child
CRPD - Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
CAT - Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Treaty monitoring bodies
HR Committee - Human Rights Committee (monitors ICCPR)
CESCR - Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
CEDAW - Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women
CRC - Committee on the Rights of the Child
CRPD - Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
CAT - Committee against Torture
UN agencies
WHO - World Health Organization
UNDP - United Nations Development Program
UN Women - United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund
UNCT - United Nations Country Team
ILO - International Labour Organization
Special procedures
SR - Special Rapporteur
IE - Independent Expert
WG - Working Group
LANGUAGE
The database uses the three working languages of the UN – English, Spanish and French. All recommendations and voluntary commitments are recorded in English.