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

8 Conclusion
With the UPR yet to complete its first cycle of reviews, it is too early to judge its effectiveness. Indeed, the real test will
be when States participate in the second round of reviews, where they will be obliged to give an update on their
progress in implementing the recommendations from their first review. However, as the findings of this report show,
some key trends have already emerged, notably the way States and indeed other Stakeholders are interacting with the
UPR, and which issues are being raised and which ones are neglected.
Drawing conclusions on the report's two main objectives
To what extent are children's rights addressed in the UPR
• Is one in five mentions satisfactory? Approximately one fifth of all points made across the UPR process are
children's rights focused, but is this really satisfactory given children cut across all human rights clusters?
Furthermore, the findings highlighted below, raise concerns over which issues are being addressed adequately
and which ones are not.
• States are avoiding more controversial issues: The findings have clearly shown how States tend to focus on,
and accept mostly recommendations on 'softer' issues, such as education and health, and neglect, or reject
recommendations on more controversial issues , such as corporal punishment or juvenile justice.
• NGOs have an important role to play: NGOs lag behind UN bodies and UN Member States in the extent to
which they address children's rights in the UPR. Indeed, with States shown to avoid the more controversial
issues, NGOs have an important role to play in addressing the full spectrum of children's rights issues and
ensuring neglected issues are brought to the forefront of the agenda.
The role of NGOs: CRIN hopes that the findings of the analysis act a as a rallying call for
NGOs to play their part in ensuring all children's rights are addressed.
Lessons learned by and practical tips for NGOs
• NGOs are still learning about the UPR: The mechanism differs from existing mechanisms in a number of
ways. Organisations must assess their own situation, together with the situation in the country they are
reporting on, and consider the range of approaches available to them before engaging with the UPR.
• Two different perspectives: A clear distinction exists between those who engage at the Geneva level
(primarily international NGOs) and achieve success by seeing their issues raised in the final recommendations,