On October 8th-11th IFOR UN reps attended to the pre-session of the 34th UPR organized by UPR Info at the Palais des Nations in Geneva and engaged in several advocacy initiatives.
At the upcoming session of the UPR among the states under review there are Angola and Italy and IFOR submitted a report for both countries which you can see below. As to Angola military service and conscientious objection, freedom of religion and restrictions on civil society, for instance, have been addressed; as to Italy the report presented the issues of public health risks connected to military installations with reference to the case of Niscemi and the Mobile User Objective System in Sicily, the selling of weapons to countries at war and the pushing back of migrants and cooperation with Libya.
The UPR is a State-driven process, which provides the opportunity for each State to present what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situation in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations; at the same time member states have the possibility to address recommendations to the State under review.
NGOs have the possibility to contribute with information that can be added to the “other stakeholders” report which is considered during the review.
Prior to the UPR session there is a pre-session, which is designed to facilitate the direct engagement of civil society and to provide member states with opportunities to find out more information on human rights in different countries. During the pre-session some NGOs are selected to give brief presentations and then all civil society representatives have the possibility to advocate directly with permanent delegations in bilateral meetings.
The 34th session starts in Geneva on Monday November 4th with the review of Italy; this is a symbolic date for this country which remember the end of the First World War and celebrate military forces. The first week of November is also a year since IFOR Council in Sicily and the International Conference on migration “On the move”; a year later IFOR continues to engage and follow up on those issues.
Angola review takes place at the end of that very week, on November 7th and we look forward for recommendations on the issue of conscientious objection, which is one of the main field IFOR is working on at the UN in Geneva.
These UN meetings are broadcasted live here.
For more information on the UPR session click here.
For details on UPR pre-session of Angola click here and for Italy click here.