UNHRC to review Indian UPR on Thursday

India's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will be scrutinised at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting in Geneva on Thursday, the External Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday.

The third Indian UPR will be reviewed in the course of the 27th Session of the UPR Working Group being held from May 1 to 12, the ministry said in a statement.

The UPR is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN member-states. IT is a state-driven process, under the auspices of the UNHRC, which provides the opportunity for each state to declare what actions have been taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations.

The UPR was created through the UN General Assembly on March 15, 2006, by resolution 60/251, which established the UNHRC itself.

India's first UPR was reviewed in 2008 and the second in 2012.

According to the External Affairs Ministry statement, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi is leading the Indian delegation which also comprises Ruchi Ghanashyam, Secretary (West) in the External Affairs Ministry, P.S. Patwalia, Additional Solicitor General of India, and senior officials from the External Affairs, Home, Women and Child Development, Social Justice and Empowerment, Minority Affairs, Rural Development Ministries and the NITI Aayog.

"The national report of India covers areas that were part of the recommendations accepted by us following the UPR-II in 2012," the statement said.

"The report also covers areas that we wish to share with member countries as part of the peer review mechanism and in a spirit of cooperative engagement and collaboration that has marked our approach to the issue of human rights."

It said that India would continue to engage constructively with the UNHRC and other countries to "both promote and protect human rights and to ensure that the national efforts in this regard continue to retain their primacy in the global discussion on this issue".

--IANS

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