L'Universal Periodic Review del Consiglio dei diritti umani: luci ed ombre della nuova procedura di controllo del rispetto dei diritti umani da parte degli Stati

The article reviews the procedure for the implementation of the UPR agreed upon by the Human Rights Council in June 2007 after an extensive confrontation between the so-called "like-minded group" of countries, advocating the political and diplomatic nature of the procedure, and the Western countries, pushing forward a characterization of the UPR as a serious review of the human rights performance of all States. Drawing extensively on the practice of the treaty bodies, the negotiations have reached acceptable compromise on several critical issues (such as the documentation on which the review will be based or the transparency of the procedure) while they have led up to far less convincing provisions on the 'outcome' and 'follow-up' of the review. For these reasons, the credibility and effectiveness of the new mechanism will largely depend on the way both States and all other actors involved in the UPR will play their respective role in the procedure. If they will be willing to take their role seriously and to creatively interpret some vague provisions of the resolution in light of the relevant practice of the treaty bodies, the UPR could certainly evolve in a mechanism that, while retaining a cooperative and non-confrontational nature, is able to assess the human rights record of all States.