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| Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean |
Senior Officials from four Commonwealth countries and one international state will convene in Barbados next week to discuss matters related to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
The two-day seminar, which is being organised by the Government of Barbados and the Human Rights Unit of the Commonwealth Secretariat, will take place from Tuesday, June 28, to Wednesday, June 29, at the Savannah Hotel.
It is anticipated that participants from Barbados, The Bahamas, Belize, Dominica and Canada will use this forum to share best practices on aspects of the UPR, which is a mechanism designed to review the human rights record of UN member states on a four-year basis.?? It is also expected that the group will strategise on the implementation of the Recommendations of the Working Group of the Human Rights Council, previously accepted by them.
The first cycle of the UPR mechanism started in 2008 and should be completed this year, while the second round of review is slated to begin in 2012.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Maxine McClean, will deliver the feature address at the opening ceremony of the event, which is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, June 28, at 9:30 a.m.