Introduction: The regulatory power of the universal periodic review

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is an intriguing and ambitious development in international human rights monitoring. A mechanism employed by the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC), its ‘ultimate aim’ is said to be ‘to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur’. While UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon describes it as having ‘great potential to promote and protect human rights in the darkest corners of the world’, the UPR was in fact designed to shine a light equally on the human rights practices of all countries – and to ‘ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed’. Background to the establishment of the UPR The ‘equal treatment’ aspiration was a response to the perceived failings of the HRC’s predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights. By the new millennium, the Commission was widely derided and regarded as a tool deployed by states to mask their human rights abuses. In 2005, then Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared: the Commission’s capacity to perform its tasks has been increasingly undermined by its declining credibility and professionalism. In particular, States have sought membership of the Commission not to strengthen human rights but to protect themselves against criticism or to criticize others. As a result, a credibility deficit has developed, which casts a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.