The function of Non-Governmental Organizations in the process of the Universal Periodic Review mechanism: The case study of Turkey

The Universal Periodic Review mechanism is a concrete example of the principle of sovereign equality in Article 1 of the United Nations Charter. This process has left no place for any government to complain about discrimination or superiority of powerful governments. The Universal Periodic Review mechanism supports the three important foundations of peace and security, development and human rights, and is considered one of the most important monitoring mechanisms of the United Nations Human Rights Council, in which non-governmental organizations play an important role. There is no doubt that non-governmental organizations are creative in interacting and cooperating with this international mechanism, but the question is whether they were able to improve their position in this mechanism, unlike other human rights mechanisms, treaty bodies and special procedures, or their role and prove their effective function in creating and promoting the culture of human rights by providing advice and participation in the country under investigation?

This is a scientific-research article and it was written in a documentary (library) method.

This article deals with the role of non-governmental organizations and their influence in applying and implementing the recommendations of the government-oriented mechanism, using the national report of Turkey, stakeholder reports and the Universal Periodic Review info’s database. The recommendations presented in the interactive dialogue express the concerns of non-governmental organizations. The results of this study show that the recommendations of non-governmental organizations, especially their coalitions in this country, are closely related to many of the recommendations of the investigating governments and other human rights mechanisms of the United Nations, such as treaty bodies and special procedures, which are the complementary arm of this mechanism.