During the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which will take place from April to May 2025, the fourth cycle of Turkey’s Universal Periodic Review will be conducted.

What is UPR?

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council that calls for each UN Member State to undergo a peer review of its human rights records every 4.5 years. The UPR provides each State the opportunity to regularly (i) report on the actions it has taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to overcome challenges to the enjoyment of human rights; and (ii) receive recommendations – informed by multi-stakeholder input and pre-session reports – from UN Member States for continuous improvement.

For this process, The Arrested Lawyers Initiative has prepared or contributed to six submissions that provide insights into the current state of human rights and freedoms in Turkey, as well as Turkey’s level of compliance with the recommendations it supported and committed to implement in the previous cycle.

The Arrested Lawyers Initiative cooperated with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, the Italian Federation for Human Rights, State Watch, Human Rights Solidarity, London Advocacy, and the Institute for Diplomacy and Economics.

The submissions are below.

Categories: Factsheets and Submissions, International Advocacy, Turkey Human Rights Blog