Everything You Need to Know About UPR 37

Published on June 04, 2021

The 37th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was held in Geneva, from January 18-29, 2021.

Fourteen countries were reviewed during UPR37: Micronesia, Mauritania, Lebanon, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Australia, Nepal, Oman, Austria, Myanmar, Rwanda, Georgia, Nauru, and Sao Tome and Principe.

Adoption of UPR Outcomes: June/July 2021

The UPR outcome for each State reviewed during UPR37 will be adopted at the 47th session of the HRC (June/July 2021). The outcome report indicates which recommendations the State agrees to implement and its responses to other recommendations. This is the only opportunity for civil society to make an oral statement during the official UPR process. The SRI, in collaboration with partners and allies, will work to ensure that sexual and reproductive rights are visible during this segment of the UPR process.

The intervening period is an opportunity to engage in dialogue with States on accepting relevant recommendations – and, at the same time, not accepting those recommendations that are inconsistent with human rights norms and standards. It is also a means for gaining the support of media and the general public.

Below are some sexual rights related highlights from each UPR37 review. Click here for the full list of recommendations made related to sexual rights, including State responses to date. 

Explainer on Terminology

  • Accepted Recommendation: State agrees to implement the recommendation
  • Deferred Recommendation: State will announce in September if it agrees to implement the recommendation
  • Noted Recommendation: State does not agree to implement the recommendation

Click here for the full list of UPR37 Sexual Rights Recommendations

Australia

Deferred Recommendations

  • End harmful practices, including forced and coercive medical interventions to ensure the bodily integrity of children with intersex variations. (Iceland)
  • Ensure free and timely access to appropriate health-care for all, including LGBTI+ persons, children and adolescents where the young person has sufficient maturity to provide informed consent. (Iceland)
  • Continue efforts to curb domestic and sexual violence, particularly for women with disabilities and Indigenous females. (Lesotho)
  • Take measures to harmonize state and territory legislation with respect to reproductive health of women. (Kazakhstan)
  • Eliminate discriminatory practices against persons with disabilities, including involuntary treatments, forced sterilizations and unjustified medical procedures. (Cuba)

Austria

Accepted Recommendations

  • Guarantee access to sexual and reproductive rights and particularly to abortion. (France)
  • Strengthen the legislative framework to expressly prohibit any practice that modifies a person's sexual characteristics without well-founded medical reasons or without the full consent of that person. (Uruguay)
  • Ensure that the human rights of intersex persons are respected, by developing a medical care protocol ensuring their participation in decision-making on medical interventions that affect them. (Argentina)
  • Strengthen measures to address unreported cases of femicides and domestic violence against women, hate crimes against migrants, refugees and asylum-seeking women and girls. (Myanmar)

Deferred Recommendations

  • Amend the legal definition of rape in the criminal code to be based on lack of consent. Additionally, provide support and assistance to victims of rape, including bringing the rate of prosecutions and convictions of rape and sexual violence in conformity with the rise in reporting of such cases. (Marshall Islands)

Noted Recommendations

  • Work towards guaranteeing access to legal gender recognition for intersex, transgender and non-binary people to all six current existing options of gender markers, without any barriers, based on self-identification. (Malta)

Federated States of Micronesia

Deferred Recommendations

  • Pass and implement laws that would recognize same-sex partnerships and define the rights and obligations of co-habiting couples in same-sex unions. (Iceland)
  • Expand the availability and accessibility of affordable services for people living with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. (Malaysia)
  • Implement the commitment made at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 to strengthen access to quality integrated sexual and reproductive health services for women, couples, adolescents and youth, using the updated Family Planning guidelines by 2022. (Iceland)
  • Strengthen prevention efforts of domestic and gender-based violence by improving support for victims and criminalizing all forms of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment and spousal rape. (Marshall Islands)
  • Include sexual assault and sexual abuse in either marriages or de facto relationships within the classification of rape under the State Codes of Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae and Yap. (Netherlands)

Georgia

Deferred Recommendations

  • Undertake educational and awareness-raising campaigns to address stigma, dispel myths and combat stereotypes related to sexual orientation and gender identity. (Denmark)
  • Improve the access to and distribution of public sexual and reproductive health services including free or subsidized contraceptive methods, especially for vulnerable groups, and criminalize the sexual exploitation of children under the age of 18 in line with the Lanzarote Convention. (Spain)
  • Develop and implement a comprehensive education curricula on sexual and reproductive health and rights, in line with UNESCO guidance and standards. (Uruguay)
  • Implement the commitment made at the Nairobi Summit on the International Conference on Population and Development to include contraceptives in the Basic Benefits Package as part of the universal health coverage. (Panama)
  • Amend the definition of rape in the criminal code to ensure compliance with the Istanbul Convention. (Denmark)

Noted

  • Adopt concrete measures against the increase in femicide and to combat violence against women. (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela)

Lebanon

Deferred Recommendations

  • Guarantee universal access to sexual and reproductive health information and services, particularly for people with disabilities, LGBTI people, migrants and refugees. (Mexico)
  • Establish a law on the personal civil status with the purpose of ensuing gender equality as regards nationality of children, marriage, dissolution and responsibilities as regards children as well as equal rights provisions between husband and wife. (Spain)
  • Integrate comprehensive sexuality education into the national education curriculum, develop resources, and conduct trainings for educators in order to ensure its effective implementation. (Iceland)
  • Explicitly criminalise in legislation domestic violence, marital rape, and sexual harassment, and adopt strategies for the effective application of that legislation. (Mexico)

Mauritania

Deferred Recommendations

  • Promote the approval of the draft bill on gender violence and accelerate the adoption of a new national action plan on this form of violence, and criminalize rape in accordance with international human rights standards. (Chile)
  • Continue to strengthen efforts to improve access to health care for all, including access to sexual and reproductive health-care services and information. (Fiji)
  • Amend its legislation in order to legalize the termination of pregnancies, in cases of risk to the life of the pregnant woman, rape, incest and severe impairment of the foetus. (Denmark)
  • Implement the commitment made at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 to introduce a module on sexual and reproductive health in school curricula for middle and high school and modules on adolescent sexual and reproductive health in the curriculum of health and medical schools. (Iceland)
  • Act to enforce its 2017 law recognising reproductive health as a universal right as well as the country’s criminalisation of female genital mutilation and fully implement its general code on children’s protection. (New Zealand)
  • Repeal the criminalization of “zina”, which not only discourages rape victims from filing a complaint but can also lead to their punishment for adultery. (Portugal)

Myanmar

Accepted Recommendations

  • Adopt a comprehensive definition of discrimination against women in its national legislation, in conformity with the CEDAW. (Sierra Leone)
  • Increase its efforts to implement the National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women 2013–2022, by ensuring the rights of women and girls and by protecting them from gender-based violence and discrimination as well as by allowing access of women and girls to information on sexual and reproductive health and rights. (Finland)

Deferred Recommendations

  • Take action to protect the rights of women and girls, LGBTI people and persons with disabilities including through legislative reform for adequate protections from discrimination, violence including all forms of sexual violence, and decriminalize same-sex sexual conduct. (Australia)
  • Take concrete action to hold the military to account for the systematic use of sexual and gender-based violence. (Marshall Islands)
  • Provide guidance and standards, and sensitize health professionals, health-service providers, security forces and legal operators to provide services with dignity and respect for all populations, including LGBTI+ persons. (Iceland)

Nauru

Deferred Recommendations

  • Adopt the necessary measures to review its domestic legislation to ensure that discrimination in all its forms is prohibited and sanctioned, particularly on the basis of gender, sexual orientation and disability. (Argentina)
  • Guarantee the access to sexual and reproductive health services and information for adolescents, and the adequate delivery of comprehensive sexuality education, in order to reduce the number of adolescent pregnancy in the country. (Portugal)
  • Continue to strengthen efforts to improve access to health care services for all, including access to sexual and reproductive health-care services and information. (Fiji)
  • Strengthen efforts to ensure comprehensive sexuality education is integrated into the school curricula. (Fiji)

Nepal

Deferred Recommendations

  • Amend the legislation that generates discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity and review the definition of marriage in the Civil Code to guarantee equal access to this right. (Uruguay)
  • Take measures to foster a safe, respectful and enabling environment for civil society and human rights defenders, especially women human rights defenders, free from persecution, intimidation and harassment, and to relax the requirements for registering NGOs. (Latvia)
  • Decriminalize abortion and concretely protect the rights and sexual and reproductive health of women and girls. (France)
  • Implement the commitment made at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 to ensure that marginalized groups are able to exercise their reproductive rights through universal access to quality family planning services, the upscaling of adolescent friendly health services and the full integration of comprehensive sexuality education, consistent with the evolving capacities and needs of youth. (Iceland)
  • Remove the one-year statute of limitation for rape and sexual violence to ensure that cases are brought to justice. (Bahamas)

Oman

Deferred Recommendations

  • Withdraw reservations to the CEDAW and review current provisions that are discriminatory against women, including rights in marriage, divorce, inheritance, and in transmitting nationality onto their children and spouses. (Italy)
  • Intensify efforts to improve access to health care for all, including access to sexual and reproductive health-care services and information. (Fiji)
  • Continue implementing national strategies with the aim of eliminating discriminatory societal stereotypes towards women, in coordination with international and civil society partners, as appropriate. (Singapore)
  • Repeal articles 225 and 226 of the Penal Code and immediately release women and girls sentenced for zina. (Luxembourg)
  • Adopt legislation to explicitly criminalize domestic and intimate partner violence, including marital rape. (Denmark)
  • Amend the Criminal Code to legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest or severe foetal malformations and decriminalize it in all other situations. (Luxembourg)

Rwanda

Accepted Recommendations

  • Protect and ensure the enjoyment of the right to the highest attainable standard of health for all people, by ensuring access to healthcare services and comprehensive sexuality education. (Uruguay)
  • Commence a widespread educational campaign on the importance of antenatal care for pregnant women. (Bahamas)
  • Implement the commitment made at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 to further improve family planning access, service delivery and uptake by increasing the number of health facilities, skilled healthcare providers and by expanding the available contraceptive method mix, including emergency contraceptives. (Iceland)

Noted Recommendations

  • Repeal all legal provisions that are discriminatory towards women and adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation; furthermore, strengthen efforts to raise awareness on existing legislation and to fight prejudices and stereotypical attitudes that lead to discriminatory practices against women. (Portugal)
  • Amend its legislation in order to legalize the termination of pregnancies, in cases of risk to the life of the pregnant woman, rape, incest and severe impairment of the foetus. (Denmark)
  • Continue efforts to reduce maternal mortality rates, in particular by removing obstacles to access to  termination of pregnancy in its existing legal causes and continuing the public debate geared towards the ultimate decriminalisation of abortion. (Uruguay)

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Deferred Recommendations

  • Guarantee sexual and reproductive health and rights by allowing unconditional abortion and by addressing gender-based violence more effectively, including criminalizing marital rape. (France)
  • Ensure unhindered access to sexual and reproductive health services and rights, including for adolescents. (Germany)
  • Develop national legislation to ensure access to sexual and reproductive health services. (Malaysia)
  • Recognize explicitly in the Constitution the right to free and quality education and ensure access to the educational system for adolescent mothers. (Costa Ric)
  • Strengthen the Health and Family Life education curriculum to comply with the revised International Technical Guidance on Sexuality Education, guarantee its implementation throughout the national school system and provide ongoing professional development for teachers to ensure that they are equipped to teach it. (Fiji)
  • Take further measures to prevent violence and discrimination against women and criminalize marital rape. (Italy)

Saint Lucia

Deferred Recommendations

  • Guarantee all people access to sexual and reproductive health education and services, and adopt a national strategy to prevent teenage pregnancy. (Mexico)
  • Adopt the National Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy, and draft a national action plan in line with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Integrated Strategic Framework to Reduce Adolescent Pregnancy in the Caribbean. (Panama)
  • Revise the Health and Family Life Education program to include education on healthy and respectful family life and interpersonal relationships, personal and shared values, cultural and social norms, human rights, gender equality, non-discrimination, violence and gender-based violence (GBV), consent and bodily integrity, sexual abuse and harmful practices, in line with UN technical guidelines on education. (Iceland)
  • Guarantee the sexual reproductive health and rights by authorising unconditional abortion and combatting gender-based violence more effectively. (France)
  • Strengthen legislation to protect women and girls from violence, including through criminalizing marital rape and establishing specialized police units to investigate crimes of violence against women. (Brazil)

Sao Tome and Principe

Deferred Recommendations

  • Pass anti-discrimination legislation to explicitly extend protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons and prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics. (Australia)
  • Ensure full and equal access to modern methods of contraceptives and to family planning services. (Denmark)
  • Implement the commitment made at the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 to respond to the needs of young people and reducing the early pregnancy rate from 15% to 10% by 2023 through the intensification of comprehensive sexuality education in all secondary schools and provision of youth friendly sexual and reproductive health in all health centres and posts. (Iceland)
  • Enact general legislation for the protection of women against sexual harassment, regardless of the environment wherein the offence is committed. (Netherlands)

Click here for the full list of UPR37 Sexual Rights Recommendations