Universal Periodic Review: The Status of Children's Rights - CRIN

Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) NGO Survey Findings
During-Review
Question 3a) Did you attend the Working Group Review meeting in Geneva?
Response Summary:
Generally, Geneva representatives of international NGOs attended the majority of reviews on behalf of their country
offices, with representatives from their country offices attending where possible. As far as international NGOs are
concerned, where country offices were not in attendance, the outcome of the review would be disseminated to the
country office. National NGOs found it far more difficult to attend the reviews, and would often have to rely on a fellow
member of the coalition to attend, that is if they were part of a coalition. Of all the organisations interviewed for the
survey, only one NGO had followed the UPR on the webcasts operated through the OHCHR website.
Question 3b) Did you make a statement during the Plenary Session (or did someone on your behalf)?
Response summary:
Some of the organisations reported that they made a statement in the Plenary Session which takes place approximately
four months after the review. As detailed in Chapter 2 of this report, NGOs have a brief slot to make oral statements on
the final outcome report of the State under review. The majority of organisations interviewed, however, said they did
not make statements. On the whole, NGOs were sceptical about the impact of making a statement or were unaware the
opportunity exists for NGOs.
Ways to follow the Reviews – See Appendix 7 also for links
� OHCHR operate a webcast of the UPR sessions.
� International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) produce analytical reports on the State
reviews, made available on their website after the event.
� OHCHR also publish the final report and recommendations on their website.
� Of course, you can access CRIN's specialised children's rights references reports after each
review
A comment expressed a couple of times was summed up below by an international NGO:
“The problem with the statement option is that the window for NGOs is only 20 minutes, and that is for
all NGOs. What we find is that the bigger NGOs receive the main slots. The second point is that the State
under review does not respond to the statements and they do not go into the final recommendations”
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