The human rights record of Vanuatu will be examined by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the fourth time on Thursday, 02 May 2024, in a meeting in Geneva.
Vanuatu is one of 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session from 29 April to 10 May 2024. The first, second and third UPR reviews of Vanuatu took place in May 2009, January 2014, and January 2019, respectively.
The UPR Working Group is comprised of the 47 Member States of the Human Rights Council. However, each of the 193 UN Member States can participate in a country review.
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 organisations, and civil society groups.
The UPR is a peer 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 thrice. During the fourth UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow up on and highlight recent human rights developments in the country.
The delegation of Vanuatu will be led by John Amos Nalau, Minister for Justice and Community Services.
The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Vanuatu are Lithuania, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates.
