The Human Rights Project at the Urban Justice Center in New York has published a toolkit on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), a relatively new human rights mechanism of the United Nations. The Universal Periodic Review is a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States once every four years. As one of the main features of the Human Rights Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when its human rights situation is assessed. The review is based on information provided by the State concerned, information contained in the reports of treaty bodies, special procedures such as the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, and other relevant official United Nations documents; and information provided by other relevant 'stakeholders', including NGOs, national human rights institutions, human rights defenders, research institutes, etc.
The Human Rights Project hopes that the UPR toolkit will serve as a helpful tool for advocates that are interested in learning about and participating in the UPR process, and that advocates will use the UPR to advance their domestic human rights agenda.
Download: www.hrpujc.org/documents/UPRtoolkit.pdf