Samenvatting

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) was created by the Human Rights Council in 2006 as a tool to evaluate human rights standards in all 192 countries of the United Nations. It should be distinguished from the reviews by treaty-based bodies. These bodies are composed of independent experts and monitor the implementation of the human rights treaties. The UPR, on the other hand, is a peer review among countries on the whole spectrum of human rights. The Netherlands was evaluated for the second time in 2012. This article describes the background and procedure of the UPR. It then focuses more specific on the session of the Netherlands, by giving an impression of topics that were raised, as well as some reflections on both the session and the UPR itself.