The Human Rights Council and the Universal Periodic Review: Is It More Than a Public Relations Exercise?
The Human Rights Council and the Universal Periodic Review: Is It More Than a Public Relations Exercise?

Summary/Abstract: The creation of the Human Rights Council in 2006 was a major step towards the promotion of human rights in terms of the changes introduced in the appointment of the Council as well as its broad mandate, including the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), an innovative system for assessing the human rights records of all UN Member States. Nevertheless, the efforts to overcome the deficiencies of the Commission on Human rights by the newly established Council depend primarily on the attitudes of Member States. The high visibility of the mechanism has shed light on the apparently political nature of the process, such as the active participation of “friendly States”, or the politicisation of the recommendations. Whereas the UPR has genuinely helped encourage countries of all development levels to improve human rights, the relatively weak implementation mechanism means that no consequences beyond embarrassment have been developed to enforce the implementation of recommendations.

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