The Universal Periodic Review: A Key Tool for Protecting and Promoting Human Rights
In an increasingly divergent world, 193 states have one thing in common: They’re all subject to the same review process of their human rights record. All United Nations (UN) member states undergo a review of this record every four and a half years in an exercise that uniquely combines diplomacy, transparency and peer accountability.
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR Review) is one of the most important UN Human Rights (UNHR) mechanisms. Unlike other UNHR mechanisms — where independent experts monitor human rights — the UPR is conducted by governments. It involves government representatives coming together to assess each country's human rights situation across all issues.
Participation in the UPR does not depend on whether a country has signed specific treaties or is part of particular human rights declarations or standards. Everything falling under the scope of human rights, international humanitarian law, the 2030 Agenda and voluntary commitments is reviewed for each state.
The process
The UPR operates in a four and a half year cycle, and each review builds upon the previous one. Governments are expected to demonstrate progress on the recommendations received, which strengthens the process by introducing a mechanism for compliance.
The review is based on three core background documents: the State Report, submitted by the government; the UN Report, a summary of findings from all UN mandates concerning the country; and the Civil Society Report, a compilation of submissions from various civil society organizations.
The actual review takes place in Geneva through an interactive dialogue between the Human Rights Council’s UPR Working Group and the state under review. While civil society organizations are allowed to attend the session, they are not permitted to speak during the interactive dialogue. Therefore, civil society actors provide information through various channels to permanent missions, urging them to raise specific issues and questions during the dialogue.
Evolution of the UPR
The UN human rights system was developed in a haphazard manner, with each mechanism — whether a treaty-monitoring body or a UN Special Rapporteur — drawing its mandate differently. This led to significant gaps and a lack of harmony in the application of overall human rights. For example, treaty bodies such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against women or the Committee on Migrant Workers can only review states that have ratified the relevant treaties. If a country has not signed a treaty, the UN committees cannot take action. Similarly, UN Special Rapporteurs are limited to their specific mandates or assigned country situations. Furthermore, the recommendations made by treaty bodies and Special Rapporteurs are not legally binding.
The Human Rights Council introduced the UPR to address these limitations. The UN General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of March 15, 2006, that established the UPR mechanism states that countries must indicate whether they accept or reject each recommendation aimed at improving their human rights record. If a recommendation is accepted, the state must show implementation progress in the next review cycle. This follow-up provision makes the UPR one of the most comprehensive and impactful mechanisms in the UN human rights system.
Why the UPR is an important human rights mechanism
Governments often hesitate to openly discuss human rights issues on the UN platform. However, the UPR is uniquely designed to foster a constructive dialogue through a peer-review process led by governments themselves. This approach encourages greater engagement and willingness among governments to implement recommendations.
From a development standpoint, the recommendations emerging from UPR reviews can be directly integrated into national programs. This not only promotes coherence across different thematic areas, but also links local human rights concerns with international frameworks and progress.
Helvetas has been consistently engaged with the UPR review process since 2017 and systematically monitors the schedule of upcoming UPR Reviews across all 35 countries where we operate. As a development and humanitarian organization, Helvetas has extensive experience in thematic areas such as water and sanitation, education, gender rights, governance and civic space. At the country level, Helvetas’ local partners are doing great work in policy advocacy. However, not all issues can be resolved at this level, and it is important to connect local advocacy with international advocacy and networks.
Helvetas’ main role is to act as a facilitator and technical support provider to both civil society and government. For governments, Helvetas organizes civil society consultations to feed into the state report. For civil society, Helvetas focuses on capacity building for local partners so they understand the UPR review process. Once capacitated, local partners can connect their issues at the international level, thereby contributing to the localization agenda.
Helvetas is one of the few INGOs with the expertise to bring experiences and challenges from the grassroots level on the development agenda (or 2030 Agenda) and connect them with the human rights framework — through rights to water and sanitation, climate and human rights, gender empowerment, and access to justice. The UPR review process is key to linking development work with the human rights framework.
Preparing Nepal’s civil society actors
The UPR Review is currently in its fourth cycle, during which groups of countries are reviewed based on the recommendations they accepted in the third cycle. Nepal, Helvetas’ oldest and largest country program and home to a very active civil society, is scheduled to be reviewed in January 2026. Helvetas’ team in Nepal has longstanding partnerships with all tiers of governments, civil society and international actors, and brings decades of expertise in rights-based programming, capacity development and policy engagement.
Preparatory work for the UPR process typically begins at least one year prior to a country’s scheduled review. Helvetas hosted a workshop in May 2025 that brought together representatives from project implementation partners, local NGOs and community groups. The aims were to build their capacity in understanding the UPR process, applying a Human Rights-Based Approach (HRBA), drafting effective stakeholder reports, and assessing the implementation of third-cycle recommendations from a grassroots point of view.
Next stop: Geneva
After participating in the recent workshop, Helvetas’ local partners who had never heard about the UPR Review are now able to bring their grassroots experiences to feed into the UPR process through these stakeholder reports. Once stakeholders reports are submitted, local partners will travel to Geneva in early 2026 for the official review. They hope that the government of Nepal will accept their concerns through the UPR review process, enabling them to help the government implement those recommendations at the local and national level.
Nepal has a vibrant civil society as well as a democratic government that is open to constructive dialogue on human rights. The upcoming UPR Review of Nepal will show that this UN process is still highly relevant — especially with many countries yielding to increasingly authoritative regimes and a repressive civil society landscape.
