Identifying Best Bractices: An Analysis of National Reports 2015

This study, done by Universal Periodic Review Info identifes best practices that States have implemented while reporting on the human rights situation in their country under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). In addition, it also underlines other aspects that UPR Info believes can be strengthened, thus improving the quality of documents. The analysis focuses on the scope and layout of the national reports, the current trends when reporting on the follow-up and the participation of civil society in the drafting process. UPR Info has considered it useful to analyse the reporting practices by States under Review (for the UPR) in order to identify patterns and best practices and to provide States with suggestions. With this purpose in mind, this analysis is the result of a study of a total of 84 national reports submitted by States reviewed during the first six sessions of the second UPR cycle (sessions 13 to 18-May 2012 to January 2014).

This analysis is divided in four parts: the first section provides an overview of the scope and the layout of the national reports during the period analysed. It intends to explain the different approaches undertaken by the States to draft the report and to identify best practices. The second section addresses the information provided by the annexes of several reports,and highlights those annexes that are considered to be more useful in assessing the human rights situation in the country. The third section focuses on how States provide information on the follow-up and implementation of recommendations. Finally, the fourth section explains how and through which mechanisms civil society has been included during the drafting of the national reports.