Press Release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
On the 2nd of November, Samoa will be presenting the third national Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. A UPR mock session was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in partnership with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community(SPC)on Thursday 28thOctober 2021 at the Taumeasina Island Resort.
The mock session is part of the year-long preparations undertaken by the Ministry as the Chair of the National Mechanism for Implementation, Reporting and Follow-Up (NMIRF) on human rights obligations for Samoa’s presentation on the national UPR report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Welcome remarks were delivered by Ms. Peseta Noumea Simi, Chief Executive Officer of MFAT, and Chair of the NMIRF, who highlighted that strengthened stakeholder engagement was a strong outcome of the third UPR cycle, to which the review process ensured that national mechanisms and processes were improved. Further recognizing that human rights implementation requires a whole of government approach. The Deputy Director General of SPC, Dr. Paula Vivili acknowledged the progress Samoa has made in implementing the previous recommendations which includes the establishment of the National Human Resources Institution (NHRI), the NMIRF, and the development of the web-based human rights tracking tool SADATA.
Key stakeholders from the Government of Samoa delegation were invited to the mock session that simulated the UPR presentation to which UN member states will provide recommendations and questions and the delegation of Samoa will answer accordingly. Samoa’s UPR presentation to the UN Council will be streamed live tonight, on UN Webcast TV from 9 pm to 12.30 am (Samoa time) available at https://media.un.org/en/webtv
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