GENEVA – Namibia’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Monday in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Namibia is one of the 14 states to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session, taking place from 3 to 14 May. Namibia’s first and second UPR reviews took place in January 2011 and January 2016, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: national report – information provided by the state under review; 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, as well as information provided by other stakeholders, including national human rights institutions, regional organisations and civil society groups.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review o Namibia on Monday can be found on the Assembly Hall, Palais des Nations, Geneva.

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the meeting will be held using a combination of in-person and remote participation, and media representatives are encouraged to follow the proceedings on webcast. Time and date: 09h00- 12h30, Monday, 3 May (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process that involves a periodic 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 twice within the first and second UPR cycles.  

During the third UPR cycle, states are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of Namibia will be led by Yvonne Dausab, minister of justice. The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (troika) for the review of Namibia are: Fiji, Sudan and Venezuela.