The Role and Influence of Non-governmental Organisations in the Universal Periodic Review— International Context and Australian Case Study Fiona McGaughey* ABSTRACT Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play an important, albeit limited, role in the United Nations most recent human rights monitoring mechanism, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Drawing on empirical data from an Australian case study and interviews with international stakeholders, the study explores the NGO role and influ- ence in this state-centric, peer review mechanism. Case study findings indicate that rec- ommendations made by NGOs, in particular a coalition of domestic NGOs, correlate closely with many UPR recommendations but that United Nations sources are more influential. This suggests that other United Nation human rights mechanisms comple- ment the UPR, so that NGOs should continue to engage with both these and the UPR. KEYWORDS : international human rights, universal periodic review, non-governmen- tal organisations, United Nations, Australia 1. INTRODUCTION The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was introduced to great fanfare in 2008 as the cornerstone of the new Human Rights Council’s (HRC) Institution-building pack- age. 1 It is a unique and significant mechanism for three reasons. Firstly, each country is reviewed by the HRC in the UPR once every four-and-a-half years. Secondly, un- like other United Nations (UN) human rights reviews, 2 the state’s record on all its human rights obligations is under examination. Thirdly, while independent experts * Lecturer, School of Law, University of Western Australia (fiona.mcgaughey@uwa.edu.au). 1 Human Rights Council Res 5/1: Institution-building of the United Nations Human Rights Council, A/HRC/RES/5/1, 18 June 2007. 2 Such as those by United Nations human rights treaty bodies and Special Rapporteurs. V C The Author [2017]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com  421 Human Rights Law Review, 2017, 17, 421–450 doi: 10.1093/hrlr/ngx020 Article Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/hrlr/article-abstract/17/3/421/4092913/The-Role-and-Influence-of-Non-governmental by guest on 05 September 2017