Syria’s human rights record to be examined by Universal Periodic Review

Syria’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 Monday, 24 January 2022, in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Syria is one of the States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session from 24 January to 3 February*, marking the end of the UPR third cycle. Syria’s first and second UPR reviews were in October 2011 and October 2016. 

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. 

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Syria on 24 January can be found here. 

Location: Palais des Nations, Geneva [NB: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting will be held using a combination of in-person and remote participation, and media representatives are encouraged to follow the proceedings on the webcast. 

Time and date: 14:30-18:00, Monday, 24 January (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour) 

The UPR is a unique process that 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 to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews that they committed to follow-up on and highlight recent human rights developments in the country. 

The delegation of Syria will be led by Dr. Bashar JA’AFARI, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, Chair of the National Committee on preparing the national report to the 3rd Cycle of the Universal Periodic Report and following up the implementation of the 2nd Cycle of the Universal Periodic Report.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Syria are Sudan, Japan and Bolivia.

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 Syria will be posted on the UPR Extranet.

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Syria at 15.00 on 28 January. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during its review.

*The 40th session of the UPR was initially scheduled to be held in November 2021, although it was postponed due to COVID-19 measures.  

ENDS 

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez, HRC Media Officer, at rolando.gomez@un.org, Matthew Brown, HRC Public Information Officer, at matthew.brown@un.org, or Pascal Sim, HRC Public Information Officer, at simp@un.org   

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

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