India’s human rights record to be reviewed by Universal Periodic Review

GENEVA (1 May 2017) – India’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, 4 May 2017 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

India is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 1 to 12 May, which also marks the commencement of the third UPR cycle.  India’s first and second UPR reviews took place in April 2008 and May 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: addressing discrimination, stigmatization and violence against Dalits ("scheduled castes"); limits on free speech and on the work of human rights defenders; attacks on religious minorities; reports of excessive use of force by security officers, including in Jammu and Kashmir; combatting impunity and ensuring accountability; delays in judicial proceedings; eliminating criminalization of same-sex relations; combatting violence against women, human trafficking, early and forced marriages, violence against children and child labour; tackling harmful traditional practices, such as “honour killings”; ensuring business sector complied with human rights and labour standards; combatting extreme poverty and the situation of landless people; improving access to safe water and sanitation; inequalities in access to health services, and high levels of neonatal mortality, stunting, malnutrition and underweight children; and girls’ school attendance.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of India on 4 May can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/INSession27.aspx

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Thursday, 4 May (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 India will be headed by Mr. Mukul Rohatgi, Attorney General

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of India are: Latvia, the Philippines and South Africa.

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 India will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link: https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/upr/Sessions/27session/India/Pages/default.aspx

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to India at 17.00 on 9 May.  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

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/upr/upr-main

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