Sierra Leone’s Human Rights Record To Be Reviewed By Universal Periodic Review

GENEVA (25 January 2016) – Sierra Leone’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the second time on Wednesday, 27 January 2016 in a meeting that will be webcast live .

Sierra Leone is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 18 to 29 January. Sierra Leone’s first UPR review took place on 5 May 2011.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues to be raised during the review of Sierra Leone on 27 January are those mentioned in these above-mentioned documents, which can be found here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/SLSession24.aspx

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva

Time and date: 09.00 – 12.30, Wednesday 27 January (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed during the first UPR cycle and 154 thus far during the second cycle. The second review of States aims to highlight human rights developments in the country since its first review and provides an opportunity for States under review to spell out steps taken to implement recommendations posed during their first reviews.

The delegation of Sierra Leone will be headed by Mr. Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, Attorney General and Minister of Justice

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Sierra Leone are: Kyrgyzstan, Mexico and Togo

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Sierra Leone will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link [username: hrc extranet (with space); password: 1session]: https://extranet.ohchr.org/sites/upr/Sessions/24session/SierraLeone/Pages/default.aspx

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Sierra Leone 17.00 on 29 January. The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review. The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711 / [email protected]

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx

UN Human Rights Council, follow us on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UNHRC

Twitter: https://twitter.com/UN_HRC
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCokQuTYVvkwQb-A3TsSUm-g