The periodic review is the last cluster of human rights protection mechanisms

New Generation Reviews on the sidelines of the 11th session of the Human Rights Council

The periodic review is the last cluster of human rights protection mechanisms

 

 

Every international effort aimed at tightening the screws on the perpetrators of human rights violations deserves to be praised, and every idea aimed at compelling governments to adhere to international human rights standards and to act on texts, covenants and covenants that the world has drawn up in this regard deserves the support of all human rights defenders in the world, Therefore, the continuous development of the United Nations mechanisms concerned with the protection of human rights is something that we would like to recommend, and we must support it by constantly evaluating the feasibility of these new mechanisms.

Maat believes that the mechanism for the universal periodic review (UPR), which was established under United Nations Resolution 60/251 in March 2006, is a golden opportunity to enhance the transparency of states with regard to their human rights practices, as the review is a cooperative mechanism that is conducted on the basis of objective and reliable information. Through an open dialogue between all parties and stakeholders (governments, independent experts and civil society organizations), through a review of the human rights situation in the country on the basis of three official reports issued by the state government, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and civil society organizations, and the review is carried out by a working group of 47 A member state of the Human Rights Council, it takes three hours, and the state is reviewed every four years.

The so-called Troika facilitates the universal periodic review process for the state under review, and the tasks of the troika include reviewing the report submitted by the member states of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review of Human Rights and working on coordinating and auditing it with the concerned countries in cooperation with the secretariat of the Council.

Among the countries whose comprehensive review was presented to the 11th session of the Human Rights Council this year is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during which it acknowledged that the review is consistent with the teachings of Islam and the imperatives of self-accountability, and has paid attention to highlighting its efforts to promote the rights of women and children and improve the judiciary.

The universal periodic review represents a major challenge in promoting the universality and interdependence of all human rights and in improving the human rights situation on the ground. It also helps to know the extent to which states respect their obligations and the efforts they undertake at the national and international levels in order to promote a culture of human rights and fundamental freedoms. The periodic review constitutes an accountability mechanism that places states before themselves and the extent of their implementation of international human rights obligations, and the inclusion of other reports besides government reports in the review makes the picture more complete for the international community.

There is a positive dimension even for countries that violate human rights in the review mechanism, as the matter does not stop at the stage of presenting the human rights situation in the country, nor does it intend to expose and defame the negative aspects of it or suspend the moral harrassment of governments violating human rights, but it comes out with recommendations regarding the provision of technical assistance The material and human rights of the state, which suffers from weakness in its mechanisms concerned with respecting and protecting human rights.

All of this makes the necessity to provide correct information in government reports and to pay attention to highlighting the negatives equally in highlighting the positives an urgent matter, and this also calls for the importance of including NGOs at the national level in the drafting and preparation of reports, and even taking their observations and violations they monitor into consideration, and not The attention of governments is focused on contradicting and criticizing what comes in the reports of these organizations, and focusing only on explaining its limitations and its distance from the truth.

There is a pioneering Swiss experience in this regard, as Switzerland took into account, when submitting its government report in its universal periodic review, the reports issued by non-governmental organizations and even indicated the points of convergence and contradiction between the government report and the reports of these organizations, and considered that the basis for this is what the two parties have agreed upon. .

 

Maat confirms that as much as he supports this nascent experience in the system of international mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights, he sees its need to develop and rid it of some negatives in order to become more effective, for example the issue of the right of the countries concerned to object to a member of the Troika or their right to have a specific member in This troika opens the door for political relations between states to dominate the human rights standards that must be adhered to.

The lack of time allocated to each country, which does not exceed three hours every four years, represents another obstacle in this regard, as it does not allow all stakeholders to listen, and then clarify all dimensions of the picture, and this necessitates the need to search for a mechanism to increase this time.

 

Finally, it remains to be mentioned that the universal periodic review, with its various components, represents progress on the path to championing human rights in the world, as it is a tool for disclosure and frankness, and even the beginning of reconciliation between the state - any country - and human rights in it, but there remains an important aspect that must be highlighted in the future. Relating to the availability of a mechanism for punishment based on the findings of the universal periodic review of the state so that the matter does not turn into a mere pointless rhetoric.

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