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EVERY Member State of the United Nations (U.N.) has to go through what is callled a Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR assesses each Member State’s adherence to its human rights obligations under the U.N. Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), human rights treaties ratified by the country, its voluntary commitments, and applicable international law.
Reviews are conducted by the UPR Working Group, which consists of 47 members of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
During the review, in addition to the “national report” provided by the country under review and the reports of U.N. bodies, the Working Group considers reports from other “stakeholders” such as civil society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and national human rights institutions.
In December of 2008, The Bahamas had its first UPR. Unfortunately, input from civil society in The Bahamas wasn’t included in our "national report".
In 2012, The Bahamas will have its second UPR. This time around, civil society must be included and we should look at the examples of other countries to guide us.
In the United States, for instance, civil society, NGOs, etc. drafted their own report and submitted it to the U.N. for consideration along with the US’ national report.♦bf
To view the US’ civil society human rights report (2010), click here: www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/ushr_Final_for_print.pdf
To view The Bahamas’ national human rights report (2008), click here: lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session3/BS/A_HRC_WG6_3_BHS_1_Bahamas_E.pdf