PERMANENT REP TAKES PART IN 14TH SESSION OF HRC WORKING GROUP

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia /MONTSAME/ The Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) and to other international organizations L.Orgil participated in the 14th session of the Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review Working Group which started on October 22 in Geneva, Switzerland. His speech was dedicated to issues like ensuring of human rights, achievements in protection of human rights, challenges and difficulties, further measures. At the session to last until November 5, fourteen countries will discuss their human rights records examined under this mechanism. The group of these states will be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during the session, and this group includes the Czech Republic, Argentina, Gabon, Ghana, Ukraine, Guatemala, Benin, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Pakistan, Zambia, Japan, Peru and Sri Lanka. Representatives of the 14 countries will come before the Working Group, which comprises the entire membership of the 47-member Human Rights Council, to present efforts they made in fulfilling their human rights obligations and commitments, assessing both positive developments and identifying challenges. The fourteenth session is the second of the UPR Working Group to be held under the second cycle of the UPR process. The first session of the second cycle, the thirteenth, was held from 21 May to 4 June this year. As an integral part of the second cycle of the UPR, States under review will also spell out the steps they have taken to implement accepted recommendations posed to them during their first review. An interactive dialogue between the country under review and the Council will take place in the Working Group. Each country review will last three and one-half hours and an additional half hour will be devoted to the adoption of the Working Group's report for each country. The review for each State will be facilitated by groups of three Council members from different regional groups, or troikas, who will act as rapporteurs. The troikas for the upcoming fourteenth session were selected through a drawing of lots on 3 May. The final outcome of the session will be adopted by the plenary of the Council at its twenty-second regular session taking place in from 25 February to 22 March 2013. Mongolia's first national report on human rights was discussed in 2010, and preparation has started to run for the election of the Human Rights Council. B.Khuder