Universal Periodic Review: Milestone in the Shared History of the UN and the US
Executive Summary
(* The complete unredacted Universal Periodic Review by the UNA-USA East Bay Chapter for inclusion in the national UNA-USA report to the United Nations Human Rights Council follows the Executive Summary.)
For the first time in the history of this country and its shared history with the United Nations, the US government is preparing to deliver a report on human rights in the United States as actually lived and recounted by people in the United States. The report, called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), will be delivered to the UN Human Rights Council by the Department of State at the end of 2010.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare specific actions they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed.
The UPR was created through the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council itself. It is a cooperative process which, by 2011, will have reviewed the human rights records of every country. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists. The UPR is one of the key elements of the new Council which reminds States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The ultimate aim of this new mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur.
Thousands of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were formally contacted by the State Department. They were requested to submit their reports describing the government’s compliance or failure to comply with human rights requirements under US law. The NGO reports from the grassroots were presented at approximately twelve public ‘consulting sessions’ around the country, in the presence of US government officials from the Departments of State, Health & Human Services, Transport, and Justice. The US government will summarize and present the findings from NGO reports before the UN Human Rights Council in November 2010. The State Department’s report may be relatively short; twenty pages approximately, will reflect the voluminous input received by the government. Continuing in a positive vein, this ground-breaking procedure, one without precedent, finds all parties – NGOs and the US government – exhibiting good will and a spirit of positive collaboration.
East Bay Chapter Advocacy Vice-President Rita Maran submitted a report on behalf of our chapter and the Northern California Division on 30 March 2010. Dr. Maran lays out a compelling argument for the importance of this process, particularly for the United States whose fulfillment of legal obligations arising from international treaties has come under serious question in recent years. For example: US repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol; the “un-signing” of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; the refusal to ratify a number of treaties enjoying near-universal support; and the willingness to disregard existing international legal obligations such as those arising from the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and from the Four Geneva Conventions, have led the Chapter to redouble efforts to bring about critical improvements in that arena.
One ongoing Chapter action open to all readers is the continuous collection of signatures on a petition to Senators Boxer and Feinstein, and to House Representatives, to actively work for ratification of these critical treaties. Readers can download the petition from the Chapter website and send them in to the Chapter once signatures have been inscribed.