Nauru’s human rights record to be reviewed

Nauru’s human rights record to be reviewed by Universal Periodic Review

GENEVA (29 October 2015) – Nauru’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the second time on Tuesday, 3 November 2015 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Nauru is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 2 to 13 November. Nauru’s first UPR took place on 24 January 2011.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: decriminalising same sex activity between consenting adults; combatting gender-based and domestic violence; prohibiting corporal punishment; preventing arbitrary detention; the independence of the judiciary; human rights training for law enforcement; steps to protect and respect media freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of information; guaranteeing protection of those disclosing human rights violations; guaranteeing the rights of all refugees and safety measures for unaccompanied refugee minors; offshore processing for asylum seekers; and the impact on human rights of the rehabilitation of mined-out phosphate lands.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Nauru on 3 November can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/NRSession23.aspx

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Tuesday 3 November (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed during the first UPR cycle and 140 thus far during the second cycle. The second review of States aims to highlight human rights developments in the country since its first review and provides an opportunity for States under review to spell out steps taken to implement recommendations posed during their first reviews.

The delegation of Nauru will be headed by Mr. David Adeang, Minister for Justice

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Nauru are: Argentina, Kazakhstan and Kenya

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Nauru will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link [username: hrc extranet (with space); password: 1session]: https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/upr/Sessions/23session/Nauru/Pages/default.aspx

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Nauru at 16.30 on 6 November. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review. The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.

ENDS

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