Diplomacy and the Art of Advocacy at the UPR

Back in June 2016, the UN passed a resolution affirming the notion that all human rights enjoyed offline should also be guaranteed online. Despite this, it’s no secret that digital rights are in crisis globally. Threats of state surveillance, censorship and malicious attacks are more widespread than ever before, and it’s time that the full capabilities of international human rights mechanisms were deployed to help stem the tide. 

That’s where UPROAR comes in. Collaborating with a broad coalition of digital rights organisations across Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, UPROAR’s mission is to use the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to ensure that states are held to account for their record on upholding human rights online.

To help you build your skills, UPROAR has launched another UPR related course on the Advocacy Assembly website: "Diplomacy and the UPR for Human Rights advocates". This course provides an overview of how civil society organisations and human rights advocates can engage actors in the UPR, including diplomats and regional and international organisations who lobby for recommendations that advance the rights to freedom of expression, access to information, media and other digital rights at the UPR sessions. 

Diplomatic engagement is vital in ensuring that civil society organisations (CSOs) can influence the Member States of the United Nations Human Rights Council and in particular the Human Rights Council Working Group on the UPR. This is essential in order to integrate international and regional norms through proposing recommendations that can improve governance, democracy and human rights in the States under Review (SuR). 

This course enhances CSOs skills in advocacy and lobbying recommending States, the Working Group and States under Review (SURs) in making and accepting recommendations that promote and protect human rights. 

You will learn also about the processes, methods and tools to use in order to effectively lobby for recommendations that advance digital rights with diplomats and UN representatives before, during and after the UPR. You will also be introduced to the UPROAR tools that will further enhance your advocacy knowledge and skills in engaging with the UPR mechanism. 

Not sure what the UPR is and want to learn more? Advocacy Assembly has three other UPR related courses to help you make the most of this critical UN mechanism:

• Introduction to Universal Periodic Review
• Making an impact with the Universal Periodic Review
• Researching Human Rights Law for Advocacy

If you are a human rights advocate, member of civil society or journalist, then this course is for you! Click here to sign up for this course for FREE.