Every four years, all the member states of the United Nations submit a report to the UN Human Rights Council on the state of human rights in their countries. This is called the Universal Periodic Review. India will be up to its second review in 2012. Since the Human Rights Council expects a report not only from the Government concerned, but also from the national human rights institution, if one exists, the NHRC will submit its own report as it did in 2008. To prepare for this, the Commission is holding a series of regional consultations with State Governments, State Human Rights Commissions, SHRCs and civil society.
The first of these consultations for the Northern region was held in Chandigarh on the 28th June, 2011. Mr. Satyabrata Pal, Member, NHRC and Dr. Savita Bhakhry, Deputy Secretary (Research), NHRC attended this consultative meeting wherein senior officers dealing with human rights in five States of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh and two Union Territories of Chandigarh and NCT of Delhi participated in the discussions.
Representatives of respective SHRCs, non-governmental/civil society organizations working at the grassroots, technical institutions, experts in the field and members of NHRC Core Group of NGOs based in the Northern Region were also invited in the meeting.