Statement by India at the 37th Session of Human Rights Council (26 February-23 March 2018) at Annual High-Level Panel Discussion on Human Rights Mainstreaming: The Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in the light of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism: Challenges and Opportunities. [Geneva, 26 February 2018]
Mr. President,
We welcome the convening of this high-level panel on the theme which India strongly believes in. We thank the panelists for sharing their views with the Council.
2. India believes that achieving human rights goals calls for constant dialogue, engagement and coordination amongst Member States and other stakeholders. The UPR mechanism is conducive to such engagement among Member States and other stakeholders. We also believe that it encourages member States to strengthen their human rights records and learn from the best practices of others. India remains convinced of the importance of UPR as an effective and visible vehicle for advancement of human rights.
3. We encourage that the principles of the UPR process must be adhered to by all and its cooperative mechanism, interactive dialogue process, the Member State driven nature and intergovernmental process must be upheld. The primacy of States’ voluntary involvement is central to successful implementation of the UPR recommendations. It is our firm belief that States remain the best judge of their requirements and priorities. National priorities, interests and challenges of the member states ought to be given due recognition in the implementation of various UPR recommendations.
4. Requests from Member States seeking technical assistance from other Member States and OHCHR should be given favourable consideration in keeping with the national priorities. In addition, the OHCHR should prepare a list of best practices shared by Member States in their UPR statements as well as offers of technical assistance. In order to achieve optimal use of time allotted to HRC, purely procedural meetings that do not require substantial discussions such as Troika selection should be discontinued in favour of a new methodology.
Thank you.
