PHNOM PENH: Chairman of the Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC), Keo Remy, said that the report of the fourth round of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will be submitted to the Human Rights Council in early 2024 and will be reviewed in the next session.
The UPR is part of the UN’s peer review process that allows countries to report every 4.5 years on actions they have taken to improve human rights, and to receive recommendations from UN member states.
On December 6, a consultative UPR workshop was held with the participation of OHCHR Country Representative, Roueida El Hage and UN Resident Coordinator Jo Scheuer. There, the CHRC President said that the review would be submitted by the end of next month so it can be reviewed at the 46th session of the Human Rights Council from April 29 to May 10, 2024.
Keo Remy also stated that the workshop was organized to provide a forum for both parties to provide comments or input on Cambodia’s UPR draft and to comply with the decisions of the Human Rights Council, through a wide range of consultations. He said that the UPR is a way to improve the human rights situations in all 193 member states through the sharing of best practices and the provision of technical assistance between states and other partners. He also said the workshop will provide a space for human rights in all countries to be equally discussed in the presence of other states.
He confirmed that Cambodia has already participated in the UPR three times, in 2009, 2014 and 2019. He said that in 2019, 73 countries participated in Cambodia’s review and made a total of 198 recommendations, of which Cambodia decided to accept 173 and take note of 25.
The UN’s OHCHR Representative in Cambodia, Roueida El Hage, noted that while the UPR is a state-driven process, it requires the participation of civil society, parliament and other actors to implement human rights recommendations. She said that open dialogue is essential to a successful outcome and that the process should offer a safe, open and enabling space for civil society actors and human rights defenders to follow up meaningfully on UPR recommendations.
