Understanding the Universal Periodic Review process and how to follow up the United Nations Human Ri The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a United Nations (UN) mechanism introduced in 2006 under which the Human Rights Council (HRC) examines the situation of human rights in states. The ultimate goal of the UPR is to promote human rights in each UN member state and enhance their capacity to deal effectively with human rights challenges, by sharing best practices in the field of human rights among countries and other stakeholders. Under the UPR, all 193 member states of the UN face a comprehensive peer review, every four and half years, of their human rights records. During the UPR, the Council conducts the human rights assessment based on the legal norms contained in (1) the UN Charter; (2) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; (3) human rights instruments to which the State is party (human rights treaties ratified by the State concerned); (4) voluntary pledges and commitments made by the State (e.g. national human rights policies and/ or programmes implemented); and (5) applicable international humanitarian law.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was reviewed for the first time in 2014. 190 recommendations were formulated to the government while the second review is planned for 2019. Normally, the next four years before the next review require that state and non-state institutions focus optimally on intellectual and physical resources to ensure effective implementation of the government commitments
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there is a need for state and non-states actors to be trained on the UPR mechanism and its monitoring tool. Civil society and human rights actors have to be properly informed of the 2014 recommendations and set up coalitions for change to collaborate with the government toward implementing the recommendations. This is momentum as nowadays most of local state and civil society and community leaders are not familiar with the concept of UPR and the government has not much disseminated the recommendations contained in the 2014 review outcome.
This project as part of CADICEC’s governance and transitional justice program aims to address the UPR knowledge and technical capacity gaps in the Democratic Republic of Congo by raising public awareness and familiarizing Congolese key states and non-states actors with the UPR process and tracking implementation tool of the United Nations Human rights recommendations. CADICEC plans to organise a three day workshop for 50 key selected state and non-states actors, including government representatives, university, media, NGO and religious group leaders from Kinshasa, Congo Central, Kwilu, Kwango and the two Kasai provinces and whose annual work impacts at least 500 people each. Two others workshop are planned in the first quarter of 2016 to cover East and South part of DRC which are challenged a big HR issues. Carter Center, Us embassy in DRC and USAID agreed to fund. This is a strategic training with trainers coming from overseas with a great experience on UPR and HR. Next step will be the  set up of strong advocacy groups with focal points in all DRC provinces which will closely work with National commission for HRs and require accountability from the government on its human rights commitments. This national advocacy network group will also sensitize population on the 190 DRC’s government human rights commitments