CCIG’s oral statement cosponsored by FIACAT
General debate under item 6
51st session of the Human Rights Council
30 September 2022
This NGO coalition welcomes the commitment of Member States to the UPR process over the years.
Moving forward to the 4th cycle, the main goal is to ensure an effective implementation of the UPR recommendations to advance the realization of human rights at the local level. National civil society as well as local and regional governments have a key complementary role to bring the decisions making process closer to the citizens and ensure that laws, policies and programs integrate rights holders’ concerns.
Widespread dissemination of recommendations locally is still lacking. Further efforts are needed to enhance the role of media in raising awareness of the UPR and the human rights issues that it raises.
To boost better implementation, there is a need to empower not only advocacy professionals, but also those providing human rights related services (for instance in the education or health sector or supporting survivors of human rights violations), both within the government and civil society. The accountability framework can be strengthened formulating SMART recommendations, fostering transparency and accessibility to local actors, and developing human rights monitoring plans with baselines and objective-oriented human rights indicators.
We recommend implementing targeted capacity building initiatives to widen the pool of actors reached and ensure that human rights education and monitoring is systematically undertaken by key local stakeholders, including the government, the judiciary and the Parliament.
Thank you.