The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all United Nations (UN) Member States. The UPR is a state-driven process under the auspices of the Human Rights Council (HRC), which provides the opportunity for each state to declare the actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations. The UPR takes the form of an interactive dialogue between the country under review and any other UN country or countries. It was created in response to concerns that previous UN mechanisms focused too much on certain regions. Accordingly, the UPR is designed to be applied more universally and uniformly. For every state, the review process is conducted every four-and-a-half years. The main goals of the UPR are addressing inequalities and all forms of discrimination, advancing the human rights situation for all, pushing governments to fulfill their human rights obligations and commitments, reviewing positive developments and challenges faced by countries, and sharing best practices between the countries and stakeholders.
