By- The President Emmerson Mnangagwa administration’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time next week Wednesday.
Zimbabwe is one of the States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 24 January to 3 February, which marks the end of the UPR third cycle.
The UPR 40th session was originally scheduled to be held in November 2021, although was moved due to COVID-19 measures.
Zimbabwe’s first and second UPR reviews took place in October 2011 and November 2016, 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 UPR is a unique process that 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.