The Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council: An Assessment of the First Session Elvira Domı ´nguez Redondo* Abstract The Universal Periodic Review is an innovative mechanism for protecting and promoting human rights within the United Nations. Instituted by the Human Rights Council in 2006, it reviews human rights situations in all States. This article analyses the configuration of this new procedure in order to assess its success in de-politicizing human rights, and in providing substantive output on the improvement of human rights at domestic level. While it remains early to detect trends, the experience of the first session of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review could shed light on both positive developments and concerns. I. Initial remarks 1. The only substantial change introduced in the mandate of the Human Rights Council (henceforth “HRC” or “the Council”) from that of its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights (henceforth the Commission), is the existence of a periodic review mech- anism to evaluate the fulfilment of human rights obligations by all States: the so-called Universal Periodic Review (henceforth “UPR”). General Assembly Resolution 60/25 1 creat- ing the Council did not set out the operational details of the review, leaving this contentious task to the Council itself: this has been a cause of major controversy within the membership. Ã Senior Lecturer in Law, Middlesex University, London, UK. Adjunct Lecturer of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland (email: e.dominguez-redondo@mdx.ac.uk). This paper was completed on 30 April 2008. Special thanks to Mariette Grange for her valuable comments and to the Inter- national Council on Human Rights Policy (ICHRP) for accreditation in enabling attendance at the first Working Group on the UPR session. 1 The Human Rights Council was established with the adoption by the UN General Assembly Res 60/251 on 15 March 2006 with 170 votes in favour, 4 against (Israel, USA, Palau and Marshall Island) and 3 abstentions (Byelorussia, Iran and Venezuela). # The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Advance Access publication 14 August 2008 ....................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................... Chinese Journal of International Law (2008), Vol. 7, No. 3, 721–734 doi:10.1093/chinesejil/jmn029 by guest on March 6, 2013 http://chinesejil.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from