The human rights record of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic will be examined by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the fourth time on Tuesday, 29 April 2025, in a meeting in Geneva that will be webcast live.
The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is one of 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session from 28 April to 9 May 2025. The first, second and third UPR reviews of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic took place in May 2020, January 2015 and January 2025 respectively.
The UPR Working Group is comprised of the 47 Member States of the Human Rights Council. However, each of the 193 UN Member States can participate in a country review.
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 three reports serving as the basis for the review of the the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on 29 April can be found here.
Location: Room XX, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
Time and date: 14:30-18:00, Tuesday 29 April 2025 (GMT+2).
The UPR is a peer 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 thrice. During the fourth UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow up on and highlight recent human rights developments in the country.
The delegation of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic will be led by Mr. Thongphane Savanphet, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice- Chairman of the National Committee on Human Rights.
The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic are Burundi, Chile and the Marshall Islands.
The webcast of the review of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic will be at: https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1j/k1juskw04h
The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic will be posted on the UPR Extranet.
The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on Friday 2 May 2025, between 15:30 and 18:00 (GMT+2). The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during its review
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
