Every four to five years, the human rights record of every member state of the United Nations is reviewed. Stakeholders, including the government, civil society and international organisations, can submit reports to the UPR to be taken into consideration in the review. Singapore’s next review is coming in mid-2021. Jolene Tan and Emmy Charissa, who contributed to Singapore’s civil society reports for previous and upcoming iterations of the review, sit down with PJ Thum to explain the UPR, why it matters, and how the process and outcome impacts Singapore in many ways. They discuss the importance of human rights to Singapore, the recently submitted report from a coalition of Singapore civil society groups and the limits of their reporting capability.
The UPR report by a coalition of civil society groups:
https://www.aware.org.sg/2020/10/civil-society-groups-submit-universal-periodic-review-joint-report-2021-session/
The Function8 UPR report:
https://fn8org.wordpress.com/2020/10/16/joint-submission-for-the-universal-periodic-review-upr/
The International Commission of Jurists report:
https://www.icj.org/singapore-icj-submission-to-the-universal-periodic-review-upr/
FIDH-Function8 Report:
https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/singapore/joint-submission-for-the-universal-periodic-review-upr
TWC2 report (on Migrant Workers):
http://twc2.org.sg/2020/11/05/twc2-submits-upr-shadow-report-for-singapore/
Press Releases on LGBTQI Reports:
https://transgendersg.com/universal-periodic-review-a-joint-report-on-transgender-issues/
https://www.onlinecitizenasia.com/2020/10/16/lgbtq-groups-submit-report-to-un-universal-periodic-review-of-singapore/
