Advancing the right to health through the Universal Periodic Review
A review of health under the first and second cycles of the Universal Periodic Review
Overview
The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a comprehensive, State-to-State peer review mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council which was introduced in 2006 to scrutinize the human rights record of every UN Member State. In 2015, WHO began a two-year project with the Human Rights Centre Clinic at the University of Essex to study how health has been addressed by the UPR.
This report reviews the extent to which health was addressed during the first and second cycles of the UPR. It asks what could be done to increase the UPR’s influence on the right to health, and what role UN Specialized Agencies such as WHO might play. It is written primarily for health and human rights advocates, activists and policy makers. The report exposes some surprising trends that challenge current perceptions that the UPR has neglected economic, social and cultural rights, and more specifically health issues.
The health-related recommendations showed widespread concern for gender-based violence and harmful practices. These comprised over one third (33%), while issues relating to maternal, child and adolescent health composed nearly a quarter (21%). On the other hand, mental health and HIV were not frequently raised, suggesting that health issues have not been scrutinized equally.
Three topics of health, were the subject of two-thirds of all recommendations associated with health. Some region-specific patterns also emerged. Nutrition figured highly among recommendations to South East Asian countries, and non-communicable diseases in the Western Pacific. Similarly, certain issues were consistently under-reported in recommendations across almost all other regions. Notwithstanding the regional trends above, under-reported issues included nutrition, water and sanitation,
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