Working towards the Improvement of Human Rights through the Universal Periodic Review: Korea's Participation in the Universal Periodic Review

Abstract

The Universal Period Review (UPR) was introduced with the establishment of the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. In each UPR working group session, UN member states receive recommendations regarding their overall human rights conditions by other member states. In response, the state under review announces whether the recommendation is supported or noted. Supported recommendations create ground for the civil and international society to pressure the state under review to implement measures to meet its promises.

The paper aims to find factors that encourage Korea to accept recommendations and how recommendations are realized on the domestic level. The UPR is an inter-state political and diplomatic stage. However, the analysis concludes that peer pressure based on political and economic relations does not seem to have a

statistically significant effect in motiving states to accept recommendations. Rather, carefully crafted recommendations taking into consideration the level of action it requires, can lead to a higher chance of

acceptance. The case of criminalizing marital rape in Korea shows how UPR recommendations are implemented. The UPR mechanism has been effectively used to pressure the Korean government to amend the Criminal Act and change the legal understanding of marital rape. Nevertheless, more delicate assessment of the gap between implementation and social context should be made in order to deliver more effective and necessary recommendations.