United Nations reviews progress in Human Rights cause, HRC submits report on U.S. Human Rights climate

Last week, the Human Rights Campaign submitted a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The report highlighted areas of much-needed improvement in the United States domestic human rights policy. It focused on deterring LGBT hate crimes, prohibiting employment discrimination against LGBT people, as well as the need for the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” among other issues.

Created in 2006 by the UN General Assembly, UPR involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 members of the United Nations once every four years. Part of this process involves soliciting reports from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the U.S. These NGO reports will be considered during the review, and the information they provide may be used by member nations during the review process. In addition to this report filed by the HRC, the U.S. State Department is expected to file a report this summer highlighting the legislative steps it has taken to forward the human rights cause within th United States. Part of the information provided within that report will address LGBT issues, and will also utilize information provided by the HRC.

The ultimate goal of the UPR process is to help reviewed nations identify human rights concerns occurring within their borders and to determine ways to address these concerns. HRC, along with the Council for Global Equality, will work throughout this year to ensure that the concerns of LGBT Americans will be addressed in the U.S.’s outcome report.

READ HRC’S UNIVERSAL PERIODIC REVIEW SUBMISSION IN FULL HERE