President's remarks at the opening of the general debate under the Council's agenda item 6 on the Universal Periodic Review

23 September 2013

Before opening the debate let me take this opportunity to refer to my letter sent to all Permanent Representatives on 18 September. The letter has been also posted on the Council's extranet.

Allow me to reiterate that looking forward to the future Council’s UPR Working Group sessions, it is my opinion that some existing practices and rules regarding particularly the Working Group reports require additional clarification, as follows:

first, the Working Group report is of a factual nature and should reflect what was said in the room by the State under review and participating delegations;

second, all conclusions and/or recommendations contained in the UPR Working Group report reflect the position of the submitting State(s) and/or the State under review and they should not be construed as endorsed by the WG as a whole;

third, all recommendations made during the review should be treated equally and listed only once in the body of report in its conclusions/recommendations section;

fourth, all recommendations should constitute a part of the outcome of the UPR and as such the State under review should clearly communicate to the Council its position on all received recommendations;

fifth, all recommendations should focus on the human rights issues and comply with the basis of review as defined in HRC res. 5/1.

I do believe that by reaffirming these practices and rules through applying them in a consistent manner to all States under review, we will contribute to strengthening the UPR credibility and to the successful second cycle of the UPR, taking into account one of its principles, which is an equal treatment of all States under review.