A/HRC/41/8 Introduction 1. The Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, established in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 5/1, held its thirty-second session from 21 January to 1 February 2019. The review of Uruguay was held at the 5th meeting, on 23 January 2019. The delegation of Uruguay was headed by the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Ariel Bergamino. At its 10th meeting, held on 25 January 2019, the Working Group adopted the report on Uruguay. 2. On 15 January 2019, the Human Rights Council selected the following group of rapporteurs (troika) to facilitate the review of Uruguay: Bahrain, Mexico and South Africa. 3. In accordance with paragraph 15 of the annex to Human Rights Council resolution 5/1 and paragraph 5 of the annex to Council resolution 16/21, the following documents were issued for the review of Uruguay: (a) A national report submitted/written presentation made in accordance with paragraph 15 (a) (A/HRC/WG.6/32/URY/1); (b) A compilation prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in accordance with paragraph 15 (b) (A/HRC/WG.6/32/URY/2); (c) A summary prepared by OHCHR in accordance with paragraph 15 (c) (A/HRC/WG.6/32/URY/3). 4. A list of questions prepared in advance by Belarus, Germany, Portugal, on behalf of the Group of Friends on national implementation, reporting and follow-up, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was transmitted to Uruguay through the troika. These questions are available on the website of the universal periodic review. I. Summary of the proceedings of the review process A. Presentation by the State under review 5. Uruguay highlighted the importance of human rights and expressed its commitment to and full cooperation with the universal periodic review, as it had demonstrated in the previous two cycles. 6. Uruguay was a party to nine fundamental human rights instruments and to their respective protocols. It was also a party to all the hemispheric, regional and subregional instruments on human rights and had recognized the competence of all the international and inter-American treaty monitoring bodies. 7. The human rights agenda cut across all national policies, which were prepared and implemented together with civil society. The participation of civil society was essential for the implementation, monitoring and sustainability of all those policies. 8. Uruguay had continued to examine the conditions of applicability of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) of the International Labour Organization (ILO). It was unclear how the definition of indigenous peoples contained in article 1 of that Convention could be applied in the context of Uruguay. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was analysing ways of working with the competent agencies in order to apply the relevant provisions of the Convention to the population of indigenous descent. 9. In the legislative field, Uruguay had adopted important new legislation, such as the law on gender-based violence against women, the law on preventing and combating trafficking in persons and the law creating the integrated National Care System. It had also adopted laws promoting the employment of persons with disabilities, promoting genderequitable development, upholding the rights of transgender persons and recognizing and protecting stateless persons. 2