ABSTRACT
South Africa is one of the longest-serving members of the Human Rights Council (HRC). It has been a member from inception (June 2006 to June 2010) and a member from December 2014 to December 2016. The government of South Africa has been vocal in its support for the HRC and its UPR mechanism. In 2010, it described the HRC as the body with ‘first instance’ responsibility for the universal enforcement of human rights and the UPR as the ‘hallmark of the Council’s work’.47 This chapter examines whether the government’s engagement with the UPR process reflects its strong support for the mechanism. The extent to which the South African government engages with the UPR, the factors undermining its engagement and the perspective which best describes this engagement are some of the issues that this chapter seeks to address. Moreover, this chapter examines the potential for rights ritualism in the UPR and the impact of a lack of effective NGO engagement with the UPR process.
