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

​French | Lao version

GENEVA (16 January 2020) – The human rights record of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Tuesday, 21 January 2020 in a meeting that will be webcast live in English and Lao.

Lao PDR is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 20 to 31 January.  Lao PDR’s first and second UPR reviews took place in May 2010 and January 2015, 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.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Lao PDR on 21 January can be found here.

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Tuesday, 21 January (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 Lao PDR will be headed by Bounkeut Sangsomsak, Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office, Chairman of the National Committee on Human Rights

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Lao PDR are:  the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia and Italy.

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 Lao PDR will be posted on the UPR Extranet

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Lao PDR at 16.30 on 24 January.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review. 

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711, rgomez@ohchr.org or Sarah Lubbersen at +41 (0) 22 917 9813, slubbersen@ohchr.org

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

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