Malawi’s human rights record to be examined by Universal Periodic Review on 3rd November 2020

Media Advisory

GENEVA (November 2, 2020) – Malawi’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Tuesday, 3 November 2020 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

Malawi is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 2 to 13 November *.  Malawi’s first and second UPR reviews took place in November 2010 and May 2015, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of Malawi on 3 November can be found here.

Location: Room 19, Palais des Nations, Geneva [NB: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting will be held using a combination of in-person and remote participation, and media is encouraged to follow the proceedings on webcast]

Time and date: 09.00 – 12.30, Tuesday, 3 November (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

                          (Malawi time is 10:00 to 13:30)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.  Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles. During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of Malawi will be headed by Titus Songiso Mvalo, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of Malawi are: Argentina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Marshall Islands.

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of Malawi will be posted on the UPR Extranet [username:  hrc extranet (with space); password: 1session].

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to Malawi at 16.00 on 6 November.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.

* The UPR 36th session was originally scheduled to be held from 4 to 15 May 2020, although was postponed due to COVID-19 measures.

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711, rgomez@ohchr.org

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr

UN Human Rights Council, follow us on social media:  Facebook  Twitter  YouTube Instagram