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GENEVA (6 November 2017) – Switzerland’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Thursday, 9 November 2017 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Switzerland is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 6 to 17 November.  Switzerland’s first and second UPR reviews took place in May 2008 and October 2012, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: the setting-up of a national human rights institution in conformity with the Paris Principles; the underrepresentation of women in politics and economics; measures to combat gender-based violence and improving protection for victims; protection from discrimination and hate speech; issues linked to Travellers, Yenish, Sinti and Roma minorities; steps for combating human trafficking; the definition of torture; steps to review the compatibility of popular initiatives with State obligation under international human rights law;  the condition of asylum seekers under administrative detention; the powers accorded to the country’s intelligence services; corporal punishment of children; the prevention of suicide among adolescents; the gender wage gap; and the respect for human rights by multinationals and other businesses and private companies.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Switzerland on 9 November can be found here.

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 09.00 – 12.30, Thursday, 9 November (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.  Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles.  During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of Switzerland will be headed by Ms Pascale Baeriswyl, State Secretary at the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Switzerland are: Slovenia, the Philippines and Ghana.

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Switzerland will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link.

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Switzerland at 16.30 on 14 November.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.  The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.   

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711 /  rgomez@ohchr.org , Sarah Lubbersen at +41 (0) 22 917 9689 / slubbersen@ohchr.org or Cédric Sapey at +41 (0) 22 917 9751 / csapey@ohchr.org

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr

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