ABSTRACT
This chapter examines South Africa’s participation in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the UN Human Rights Council’s peer review mechanism. South Africa regards the UPR as a means for ending the politicised and selective way human rights are treated at the UN. However, South Africa’s performance on the UPR has been weak in its defence of human rights, riddled with the selectivity and double standards it decries, and in keeping with the anti-imperialism that marks its behaviour in other domains of the Human Rights Council. These conclusions are based on an examination of South Africa’s positions during the setting up of the UPR during the Council’s first year (2006-2007) and South Africa’s participation as a reviewer of three sets of states: non-African states with poor human rights records, Western states, and African states.
