Guyana’s response to the recommendations made on its earlier report to the Human Rights Council under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) will be considered next month at the upcoming 15th session of the Council, Dr Roger Luncheon says.
Guyana’s initial presentation and its examination were both done in May, at a sitting in Geneva, Switzerland. Next month’s sitting is also scheduled for the same venue.
“This second visit by Gail Teixeira, the Presidential Advisor on Governance, provides for Guyana’s presentation of its updated submission that would include the official reactions to those recommendations of participants at the original sessions,” Luncheon said. Luncheon, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, made this announcement at his post-Cabinet press briefing last week.
According to him, unlike the first meeting, this meeting will allow for participation of both local and international NGOs, in addition to the state parties.
Asked if it the document will be made public, Dr. Luncheon said it would be public when it is handed over to the Council. “I’m not certain, but I can’t see it not being done.
If making it public were to mean it is available. Yes, because the practice is, [they] would call for us to submit the report well in advance of the actual meeting in September so that the Council could translate it into the many languages of the UN and it would be posted on the Council’s website. So it is available publicly,” Luncheon said.
Luncheon explained that there was no need for consultations with various NGOs since this report dealt solely with the State’s response to the recommendations.
At the time the first report was presented, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) said that Guyana’s report to the UN Human Rights Council did not benefit from consultations and that it was contemptuous of the council and civil society here.
