MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK praises Brazil for its continued commitment to human rights

“We welcome Brazil’s acceptance of the recommendation regarding mandatory human rights training for police agencies”

The United Kingdom thanked Brazil for its continued commitment to the Universal Periodic Review process, which took place at the Palais del Nations in Geneva, during the 27th Session of the Universal Periodic Review on 21 September 2017. The UPR is a process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States. The UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council.

 “We welcome Brazil’s progress since 2012, including the establishment of the National System to Prevent and Combat Torture, recognition of same sex marriage, adoption of legislation on femicide, establishment of the Truth Commission, and the implementation of custody hearings by some states.

”We remain concerned by reports of high levels of police violence, and violence within the prison system, and urge Brazil to strengthen the protection of journalists and human rights defenders.

“We welcome Brazil’s acceptance of the recommendation regarding mandatory human rights training for police agencies. We hope that Brazil adopts targets to reduce deaths from police action before the next UPR cycle. We also welcome Brazil’s acceptance of the recommendation to develop a national strategy to tackle modern slavery and increase efforts to protect rural workers and women at risk of trafficking. We look forward to Brazil ratifying the 2014 ILO protocol to the Forced Labour Convention.

”We regret that our recommendation regarding the selection of UN treaty body candidates was not supported and hope Brazil will consider demonstrating its open and merit based approach to the selection of national candidates for UN Treaty Bodies’ elections.

“We further note that a number of previously supported recommendations from the second cycle, such as the improvement of prison conditions, are yet to be fully implemented and we hope that Brazil will implement all supported recommendations during the fourth cycle”.

The UPR was created through the UN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 by resolution 60/251, which established the Human Rights Council itself. It is a cooperative process which, by October 2011, has reviewed the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists.

The UPR is one of the key elements of the Council which reminds States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. The ultimate aim of this mechanism is to improve the human rights situation in all countries and address human rights violations wherever they occur. As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights ssituations are assessed.