For the first time, the United States will have its human rights record evaluated by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will assess if the U.S. is meeting its human rights obligations and will offer recommendations for improving the government’s commitments to promoting human rights. The State Department is “encouraging the American public, including non-governmental organizations and civil society” to submit their own evaluations of the U.S.’ adherence to human rights standards. The Charity and Security Network’s report will focus on the negative impact national security laws have had on U.S. nonprofits and their humanitarian programs. Comments are due no later than April 19, 2010.

Established by the UN’s Human Rights Council, the UPR was created as a peer to peer review process in which countries review other countries. According to the U N, the UPR is a three step process that involves reviewing the human rights situation of a member nation, including assessing the extent to which that nation respects their human rights obligations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,  “voluntary pledges” by the country to follow recommendations made by the Human Rights Council, and an additional review to see if those recommendations have been implemented.

The Charity and Security Network’s submission will address the discrepancy between U.S. security measures and the State Department’s Guiding Principles on Non-Governmental Organizations (Guiding Principles).  Inspired by the “right to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association enshrined in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” the Guiding Principles recognize “that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are essential to the development and success of free societies.”   For more information about CSN’s submission, contact us at [email protected].

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 10, 1948, is one of the standards used in the UPR. U.S. nonprofits, as the civil society sector, are key to human rights. As our 2010 Human Rights Day blog points out, “our programs and services address basic survival needs, such as hunger, shelter, healthcare (see Article 25) and long term sustainability of society through education (Article 26), social security (Article 22) cultural life (Article 27) and more.  Second, nonprofits provide a forum and vehicle for people to pool their collective voice and resources for betterment of society as a whole.”

Other U.S. civil society organizations and coalitions are planning on submitting reports for the UPR. Reports from these groups will highlight economic and social issues such as the death penalty, labor and housing.

The State Department says the collection of complaints about human rights abuses in the U.S. is part of its goal of transparency in the UPR process.  While presenting the 2009 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on March 11, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, “Human rights are universal, but their experience is local. This is why we are committed to holding everyone to the same standard, including ourselves.”

The UPR process reviews 16 countries per year. In addition to the United States, 15 countries will participate in 2010, including Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Lebanon, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Andorra, Bulgaria and Croatia.