UPR Under the Human Rights Councils Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, the human rights situation

of all UN Member States is reviewed every 4 years (48 States are reviewed each year during three UPR sessions dedicated to 16 States each). The review of each country is based on three reports. One is a national report prepared by the government while the other two are produced by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), i.e. the compilation of UN information and the summary of stakeholders information. UN agencies and programs, civil society organisations and others participate in the review process by submitting information that is then included in the reports prepared by OHCHR and discussed during the review. The result of each review is reflected in an outcome report listing the recommendations made to the State under review (SuR) including those that it accepted and which it will have to implement before the next review. The UPR is a full-circle process comprising 3 key stages: 1) Review of the human rights situation of the SuR 2) Implementation between two reviews (4 years) of the recommendations accepted and voluntary pledges and commitments by the SuR 3) Reporting at the next review on the implementation of those recommendations and pledges and on the human rights situation in the country since the previous review This is a cooperative mechanism based on an interactive dialogue between the State reviewed and Member States of the Human Rights Council. Unlike the other HRC functions and the U.N. General Assembly the UPR process is not regionally driven; that states make their recommendations largely on individual basis. Further, being a peer-review mechanism, UPR seems to rely more on the carrot of positive reinforcements and inducements rather than the stick of punitive measures. The case of the UPR Resolution 60/251 emphasized that the process should be cooperative, constructive, non-confrontational and non-politicized. UPR and the African states: the number game w.r.t. criminalization of homosexuality Total countries reviewed that were recommended to amend their laws so as to decriminalize adult consensual homosexual conduct: 14 Countries that have accepted the recommendations: 0 Countries that did not accept the recommendations: 12 1. Botswana 2. Cameroon 3. Congo 4. Comoros 5. Gambia 6. Kenya 7. Lesotho 8. Malawi 9. Mozambique

10. Namibia 11. Zambia 12. Mauritius Countries that agreed to examine their laws: 1 (Ghana) Response pending: 1 (Central African Republic) The above break-up demonstrates that UPR helps in bringing a difficult issue such as criminalization of homosexuality in a particular country into the fold of a peer-review system and thereby providing a useful resource for the human rights and more specifically LGBTI rights activists. But the above break-up also underlines the soft nature of this form of diplomacy in that most states that were recommended to decriminalize, simple did not accept such recommendations.