Canada
WG UPR
February 14, 2007


Outcome of the Review


On the Outcome of the Review, Canada supports all of the suggested elements that you have set out under Section V of the non-paper, subject to the following.  

We would suggest that under section 1, Format, we should add that the outcome should consist of a report including the questionnaire, the responses of the State, a summary of proceedings, and the conclusions and recommendations of the review committee.  

We would also suggest that the fourth bullet under section 2a should read “the identification of technical assistance and capacity-building needs for a State under review for consideration by relevant actors”, as the Council itself cannot provide such assistance or directly task such actors.  We note that there are many existing assistance mechanisms already active in the field of human rights, including the United Nations Technical Cooperation Programme in the Field of Human Rights, which is funded from both the UN regular budget and the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights, and which provides assistance upon the request of the State concerned and following a needs assessment by international experts and the Office of the High Commissioner.

In the second bullet under section 2b, we would suggest adding recommending a visit by relevant special procedures.  However, we agree that we do not need to be overly prescriptive or bind the hands of the workings groups or the Council.

The third bullet under section 2b would better read “recommendations regarding the establishment of OHCHR field offices or other forms of field presence”, as such decisions should be taken by the State concerned and the High Commissioner, taking into account needs and capacity.

We would also recommend that an advance draft of the Council's report be shared with the State under review for comment prior to making the report public.

If you will permit me Mr. Facilitator, I will also briefly address Follow-up to the review at this point in order to save time. Canada supports all of the suggested elements that you have set out under Section VI of the non-paper, subject to the following.  

Under section VI A, we would recommend that the fifth bullet would better read that “The international community should give consideration to the capacity building and technical assistance needs identified through UPR.” 

We would recommend adding to the second bullet under section B a reference to the OHCHR and other relevant UN agencies, funds, and programmes as implementation partners.

Under section VI B, we would suggest that it may be both unduly burdensome and not very useful to compile all of the UPR reports into a single global report, which might be out of date as soon as it is completed.  The UPR reports should however be made publicly available on the OHCHR website and transmitted to relevant UN agencies, funds and programmes.  

Thank you.



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