A Report on U.S. Engagement with the Universal Periodic Review Process

In March 2011, the United States government formally accepted recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council. This marks the first time  the United States has been formally reviewed under the Universal Period Review (UPR) process, a process in which a country’s entire human right record is examined by a committee of its peers.

In response, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released the following analysis and responded to the formal adoption of the U.S. government report.

• Short Critique and Statement of U.S. Engagement with the UPR Process 
• From Rhetoric to Action: A Report on U.S. Engagement with the Universal Periodic Review Process  

Previously, CCR engaged with the process by contributing to or authoring the following reports:

• Political Repression: Continuum of Domestic Repression
• Political Repression - Political Prisoners
• Human Rights Abuses Committed by the New York Police Department
• The Persistence, in the United States, of Discriminatory Profiling Based on Race, Ethnicity, Religion and National Origin
• Stakeholder Submission on United States Obligations to Respect, Protect and Remedy Human Rights in the Context of Business Activities
 

CCR urges the Obama administration to move from rhetoric to action, and to take concrete steps towards complying with its full international human rights obligations. In particular, the U.S. is failing to meet its obligations regarding accountability for serious international law violations, the closure of Guantánamo, ending unlawful targeted killings, isolating political activists and Muslims in prisons, and ending the practice of racial profiling by local law enforcement. The attached report discusses these issues in further depth.

Watch CCR Staff Attorney Katherine Gallagher at the UPR of the U.S.