Once in four years, each member state of the United Nations is subject to peer review with respect to its human rights record. The Singapore government will appear before this process, known as Universal Periodic Review (UPR), in Geneva, in January 2016.
In the lead-up to this process, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued an open invitation to individuals and civil society groups to submit reports (informally known as ‘shadow reports’) about the member state under review. OHCHR requested that each submission should cite the ways in which the articles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (and other treaties entered into by the member state) have been lived up to (or not).
Transient Workers Count Too sent in our report with respect to migrant workers’ situation, 13 June 2015.
The OHCHR will prepare a consolidated summary of all the shadow reports received, and the Singapore government, besides submitting its own report (by 26 October 2015) about how it has protected human rights, will be expected to respond to the issues raised in the summary. It may even feel obliged to respond to specific issues highlighted in shadow reports. Members of the UN Human Rights Council will meet in session in January/February 2016 to review Singapore, and pose questions to Singapore’s representative. For more information about the process, see: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx
The buttons above will enable downloads of the cover letter (pdf, 89kb) and the main submission (pdf, 163kb).
The outcome from the previous review of Singapore (2011) can be seen by following this link: http://www.upr-info.org/en/review/Singapore