Moving forward to the 4th UPR cycle: A Joint Oral Statement by the CCIG

On the occasion of the 51st Session of the Human Rights Council, held from 12 September to 7 October 2022, the CCIG delivered an oral statement under item 6 General Debate, which was supported by a coalition of 13 NGOs. 

The statement stressed how, being now at the beginning of the 4th UPR cycle, the main goal is to ensure an effective implementation of the UPR recommendations to advance the realization of human rights at the local level. National civil society as well as local and regional governments have a key complementary role to bring the decisions making process closer to the citizens and ensure that laws, policies and programs integrate rights holders’ concerns.

In fact, to boost better implementation, there is a need to empower not only advocacy professionals, but also those providing human rights related services (for instance in the education or health sector or supporting survivors of human rights violations), both within the government and civil society. The accountability framework can be strengthened by formulating SMART recommendations, fostering transparency and accessibility to local actors, and developing human rights monitoring plans with baselines and objective-oriented human rights indicators. 

The NGO coalition led by the CCIG recommended implementing targeted capacity building initiatives to widen the pool of actors reached and ensure that human rights education and monitoring is systematically undertaken by key local stakeholders, including the government, the judiciary and the Parliaments.

A special thank you to the partner organizations for their inputs and support to this statement, but especially for their continuous efforts to contribute, locally and internationally, to the implementation of human rights recommendations worldwide.

The text of the statement is available here and the video recording here.

For more information on CCIG work with the UPR, please consult the webpage of CCIG UPR Platform.