TWELFTH SESSION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL’S UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW TO BE HELD FROM 3 TO 14 OCTOBER 2011

Seventeen States will have their human rights records examined during the twelfth session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review Working Group to be held in Geneva from 3 to 14 October. These countries are (in order of review) Tajikistan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Antigua and Barbuda, Swaziland, Trinidad and Tobago, Thailand, Ireland, Togo, the Syrian Arab Republic, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Iceland, Zimbabwe, Lithuania, Uganda, Timor Leste, the Republic of Moldova, and Haiti.

Haiti’s review had initially been scheduled for 11 May 2010 but due to the devastating earthquake, which had affected Haiti in January 2010, the Human Rights Council, in a Special Session held on 27 January 2010, had endorsed the request of the Haitian Government to postpone the review of this country to no later than the last session of the first Universal Periodic Review cycle.

By the end of this two-week session, all 192* Member States of the United Nations will have had their human rights records examined by the Universal Periodic Review Working Group. The mechanism has thus reached the end of its first four-year cycle.

Representatives of the seventeen countries under review are expected to come before the Working Group, which comprises the entire membership of the 47-member Human Rights Council and Observer States, to present measures they have taken and efforts they have made to fulfill their human rights obligations and commitments, assessing both positive developments and identifying challenges.

The three documents on which reviews are based are: information prepared by the State concerned; a compilation of information contained in UN reports; and a summary of information provided by other relevant stakeholders (non-governmental organizations, national human rights institutions, human rights defenders, academic institutions and research institutes, civil society representatives, etc.).

All together, each country review – constituted of a presentation by the concerned State and an interactive dialogue with the Council – will last three hours. An additional half hour will be devoted to the adoption of the report of each review by the Working Group. The final outcome document, including recommendations made by States and the position of the State under review on the recommendations, will be adopted by the plenary of the Council at its nineteenth regular session, in March 2012.

The twelfth Universal Periodic Review Working Group session will take place in Room XX – The Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Chamber – at the Palais des Nations. The provisional timetable for the meeting is available on: http://www2.ohchr.org/SPdocs/UPR/Timetable_12th_Session.doc

Additional information on the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, including the reports for each country review can be located on the Human Rights Council website: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx

*South Sudan became the 193rd United Nations Member State on 14 July 2011. The Universal Periodic Review Working Group considered the report of Sudan on 10 May 2011. The Human Rights Council then adopted the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review on Sudan and South Sudan on 23 September 2011.

For more information and media requests, please contact Cédric Sapey, csapey@ohchr.org, +41 22 917 9657 or +41 79 477 4411


For use of the information media; not an official record

HRC11/137E