This paper emerges out of a long-decade partnership between Balay and Dignity, both in program work and in research and knowledge generation. One of the important areas of work adn reflection has been around advocacy. For nearly a decade Balay's anti-torture advocacy has been a crucial component in progressively achieving a vision of a society where human rights are at the heart of perspectives, discourse and practice. Through this advocacy, Balay, in partnership with Dignity, has contributed to the adoption of a law and a treaty relevant to torture; policy and institutional changes at the national and local level; greater awareness of the anti-torture agenda; and, perhaps most importantly, in having working relationships, and even, partnerships with government agencies.

The report aims to capture the voices and perspectives of civil society participants at the Forum, including on key areas to enhance the impact of efforts made to promote the fight against torture and ill-treatment across the world. (As such its content is the sole responsibility of HRDN and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European External Service, nor of the European Commission services).  

The present report was prepared pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1 and 16/21, taking into consideration the periodicity of the universal periodic review. It is a summary of 53 stakeholders' submissions to the universal periodic review, presented in a summarized manner owing to word-limit constraints.

 

Human rights and development are often perceived as different domains of intervention. Whereas civil and political rights are perceived to relate to the respect and protection of human dignity against violent onslaught (torture, restrictions of political rights, extra-judicial killings, war and conflict), development is often viewed as focusing on the creation of possibilities (labour, sanitation, industry, agriculture).