A workshop with the representatives of the Geneva Human Rights House Foundation was held in Sarajevo on Thursday, 27^th of February with the goal of presenting the instruments of international advocacy and briefing on human rights with an emphasis on UPR to the civil society organizations. Florian Irminger, the director of the program of the Geneva Human Rights House Foundation and Lana Vego, the regional coordinator, presented the UN mechanisms of human rights protection, the positive and negative sides of UPR and the manner of presenting The Review, how to lobby in Geneva and how to implement and keep track of recommendations from the report.

The workshop was attended by the representatives of the following organizations: Women to Women, One World See, Elsa, Rights For All, Sarajevo Open Centre, UG Ceterum Censeo, To Peer Doboj, Centar informativno – pravne pomoći / CIPP Zvornik (The Centre for Informative and Legal Aid Zvornik), Centar za razvoj civilnog društva Doboj (Centre for the Development of Civic Society Doboj), Prava djece Tuzla (Children Rights Tuzla), Association of Legal Associates and Advisers in Courts and Prosecutors’ Office in BiH and Trial.

Some of these organizations have already participated in the making of the shadow report for the forthcoming periodic review BiH at the twentieth meeting of The Human Rights Council.

Shortly on The Universal Periodic Review: Every four and a half years, The Human Rights Council will examine reports on human rights of all countries. As a mechanism of The Human Rights Convention, the review is held in Geneva. During a session of three and a half hours, every country can ask questions and make suggestions and comments. Likewise, the state whose report is being revised has the right to answer questions during the session. UPR provides a chance for the countries to discuss the state of human rights in a certain country interactively and without discrimination, taking into consideration that the countries will be revised periodically. The review is based on information from three different sources: the countries under revision, UN mechanisms and the agency, other associates, including non-governmental organizations. In this manner the non-governmental organizations play a major role in securing the relevant information being presented to the UPR.