Methodology

The data used in this database come from the Universal Periodic Review reports. They draw from three external sources of information. The first two are sources the UPR uses when reviewing the country under consideration, namely "the 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;” and "information from other stakeholders including national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.” The first is called "UN” in the database, while the second is called "NGOs.” The third source is the Report of the Working Group. The information from this third source is called "States” in the database. The recommendations from the Working Group report are reformulated into issues. The database does not use data from national reports.

The database search on each country is presented by Issue (equality and non-discrimination, children, women, etc., as formulated by UPR); Value (Positive if reflecting accomplishments on the issue or Negative if reflecting concern on the issue in the country under review); the Organization reporting on the issue ("NGOs” if they are from "summary of stakeholder's information; "UN" if they are from "Compilation of UN information”; and "States” if they are from the "Working Group”); and Cycle (first, second, etc. review; based on the cycle, each country has been reviewed). Search can also be conducted by combining any of the sources presented above.

This is an ongoing project. The goal is to update the database with the data made available at the end of each session of the current 4th Human Rights Council Human Rights Periodic Review session. Substantial and probably more challenging work is to collect and enter the data from the previous three review cycles on each country.

The plan is to take advantage of the UPR summer vacation to generate and upload human rights data for all countries reviewed since the fall of the preview year. The data made available in summer 2023 are, therefore, from the following countries: Bahrain, Ecuador, Tunisia, Morocco, Indonesia, Finland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, India, Brazil, Philippines, Algeria, Poland, Netherlands, South Africa, Czechia, Argentina, Gabon, Ghana, Peru, Guatemala, Benin, Republic of Korea. Switzerland, Pakistan, Zambia, Japan, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, France, Tonga, Romania, Mali, Botswana, Bahamas, Burundi, Luxembourg, Barbados, Montenegro, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Liechtenstein, and Serbia.