MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF DENMARK
Mid-term report by Denmark on follow-up on the recommendations from the Universal
Periodic Review
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark presents its complements to the Office of the
High Commissioner for Human Rights and has the honour to hereby transmit to the Office, in
its capacity as Secretariat of the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism, its mid-term report.
The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs kindly requests the Secretariat to post this information
on the UPR website.
Denmark strongly supports the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Mechanism and attaches
great importance to the use of the mechanism to promote implementation and improve
protection of human rights by all countries worldwide.
The report reviews the implementation of the recommendations received at the first UPR
examination of Denmark’s human rights situation on May 2, 2011.
The 2011-outcome report
contained 133 recommendations. Of these, 82 were accepted, 49 were not accepted, and 2
recommendations were partly accepted. In this 2014 mid-term report, 102 recommendations
are accepted, 5 partly accepted, 16 are still not accepted, and 9 are currently under
consideration. Finally, one recommendation is partly under consideration and partly not
accepted.
The 9 recommendations under consideration are all related to an Expert Committee set up by
the Danish Government in December 2012. The Government asked the Committee to make
recommendations on whether
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and if so, how
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Denmark should i) Incorporate a number of
human rights instruments in Danish law, ii) Sign up to more individual communications
procedures before UN treaty bodies, and iii) Ratify the Protocol 12 to the European
Convention on Human Rights containing a general prohibition of discrimination. The
Committee is expected to conclude its work in the summer of 2014. Its work has thus direct
implications on 9 recommendations, which were all initially rejected by Denmark.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been responsible for coordinating the follow-up to the
recommendations and has established a working group with relevant ministries in Denmark,
the Governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Danish Institute for Human Rights
(Denmark’s National Human Rights Institution)
and civil society were consulted by the
circulation of the draft report among civil society actors in order for them to provide input on
the mid-term review. The responses were taken into consideration by the inter-ministerial
working group before the report was approved by the Danish Government.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights the assurances of its highest
consideration.
Copenhagen, 18 June 2014.