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

07 May 2021

GENEVA (7 May 2021) – Singapore'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 Wednesday, 12 May 2021, in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Singapore is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 3 to 14 May*. Singapore's first and second UPR reviews took place in May 2011 and January 2016, respectively.

The reviews are based on:

  • the national report from the State under review
  • information in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups - known as the Special Procedures - human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities
  • 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 Singapore on 12 May can be found here.

Location: Assembly Hall, 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 webcast].

Time and date: 09:00 – 12:30, Wednesday 12 May (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 they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews and highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

Professor CHAN Heng Chee, Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will lead the delegation ofSingapore.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs ("troika") for the review of Singapore are Uzbekistan, Cameroon, and the Russian Federation.

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 Singapore will be posted on the UPR Extranet.

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Singapore at 15:30 on 14 May. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.

*The UPR 38th session was initially scheduled for January 2021 and was postponed due to COVID-19 measures.

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez, HRC Media Officer, at +41 (0) 22 917 9711, rgomez@ohchr.org , or Matthew Brown, HRC Public Information Officer, at mbrown@ohchr.org

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

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