Mongolia works as general reporter of UNHRC working group

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ As a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Mongolia has served as a general reporter of the council’s working group to discuss human rights situation in Solomon Islands, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported February 5. Since the beginning of this year, this is the very first biggest work imposed on Mongolia after it had the full membership status of the UNHRC. Every member of the UNHRC has duties of discussing Universal Periodic Review-UPR of nations and issuing relevant conclusions and recommendations. The Council dscusses human rights status of about 42 countries every year, which means that each member handles reports of 3-4 countries, for example, Mongolia is serving as the general reporter of the human rights reports of Solomon Islands, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Uganda for this year. The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique 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, which provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations. As one of the main features of the Council, the UPR is designed to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights situations are assessed. 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.