A/HRC/19/50
in the design, establishment and implementation of specialized information systems for the
follow-up of recommendations and voluntary pledges. 3
6.
Denmark stated that the VFFTA should aim to establish and strengthen
coordination mechanisms, to devise road maps for the follow-up of recommendations and
to implement key recommendations. It further stated that it was important for all parties to
actively support the UPR mechanism and that this support should include financial
contributions to the VFFTA.
7.
Guyana stated that the follow-up to commitments made by States during their
respective reviews were fundamental and essential to the UPR process. The main challenge
was to ensure that the norms and standards of the international human rights systems are
translated into action. To that end, the implementation of international human rights
obligations cannot depend on political will alone. In many instances, obligations will not be
fulfilled, or fulfilled in a timely manner, because of the paucity or lack of necessary
mechanisms, poor communication and dissemination, complex political situations, lack of
capacity and resources at the institutional level, or difficulties of implementation due to
competing and immediate demands on limited resources. In this regard, the VFFTA
provided a critical and missing component in the implementation of States’ commitments,
especially with regard to developing countries.
8.
Guyana further stated that any system developed to implement the VFFTA will have
to be efficient, realistic and directly linked to the provision of financial and technical
cooperation or human rights advisory services, as requested by States. The VFFTA should
assist States to access technical and financial resources to facilitate overcoming some of
their capacity constraints. The VFFTA should specifically target the least developed
countries, newly emerging or restored democracies, countries where there has been a
regression in human rights as well as small and vulnerable States, which face particular
challenges in attaining the realization of human rights. In addition, the VFFTA can assist in
enabling the States to develop road maps and practical mechanisms to ensure a reliable
follow-up and implementation process. Technical cooperation programmes can facilitate in
the exchange of best practices between States and allow for more country-specific and
country-driven goals achievable within a reasonable time frame, depending on the level of
development constraints of a State, while at the same time recognizing the imperative of
national capacity-building.
9.
Guyana added that the VFFTA can contribute to and be integrated into the United
Nations Common Country programming cycles, including the United Nations Development
Assistance Framework (UNDAF). Therefore, the VFFTA could positively contribute to the
implementation of commitments made by States, especially small developing countries.
10.
Japan stated that reviews from the second cycle onwards should focus, inter alia, on
the implementation of the preceding outcome. In order to support the follow-up to accepted
recommendations, Japan reiterated its previous proposal that beginning with the second
cycle of the UPR: (a) each State should make its own best efforts to follow up on its
recommendations and where these efforts are inhibited by a lack of resources and/or knowhow, relevant United Nations agencies including OHCHR are encouraged to provide
assistance; (b) each State should group its accepted recommendations into those
recommendations that it can implement on its own (first group) and those recommendations
for whose implementation international assistance is required (second group), and provide
this information to the Secretariat for circulation. In relation to the second group of
recommendations, the State should call on bilateral donors and relevant United Nations
3
4
Colombia conveyed its responses to the survey in a note verbale, dated 16 November 2011.
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