State Human Rights Performance and Recommendations under the Universal Periodic Review

Year 2020, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 5 - 21, 20.12.2019

Eric Cox

https://doi.org/10.20991/allazimuth.574824

Abstract

This paper analyzes recommendations made to
states under the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
in order to determine whether or not the UPR is making meaningful
recommendations to states under review. The UPR reviews the human rights of all
UN Member States every four years. During the review, each state receives a
number of recommendations from other UN member states. This paper uses data
from UPR Info to determine if states with better human rights performance as
measured by the CIRI human rights data project receive fewer recommendations
than states with worse performance. It finds that, even when controlling for
other factors, states with worse records on civil and political rights
generally receive more recommendations than states with better records. States
with lower scores from CIRI on women's economic and political rights receive
more recommendations regarding women's issues than states with higher scores.
These findings hold regardless of region, suggesting that, at a minimum, the
UPR process is identifying violators of human rights.

Keywords

Human Rights, Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, United Nations, global governance

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