Antigua and Barbuda’s human rights record to be examined by Universal Periodic Review

The United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group is scheduled to conduct its fourth formal examination of Antigua and Barbuda’s national human rights record during an upcoming session in Geneva, set to run from 9:00 to 12:30 GMT+1 on Friday, 6 November 2026, with full proceedings streamed live for global public access. This Caribbean nation is among 14 sovereign states selected for review during the Working Group’s two-week official session spanning 2 to 13 November 2026. Prior UPR assessments of Antigua and Barbuda were completed in October 2011, May 2016, and November 2021, marking the completion of three full review cycles for the country under the UN’s peer oversight mechanism. The UPR Working Group draws its core membership from the 47 elected states that sit on the Human Rights Council, though all 193 UN member states and official UN observer entities are granted permission to participate in individual country review proceedings. Each national assessment under the UPR framework is rooted in three distinct, verified information streams: a self-submitted national report compiled directly by the government of the state under review, aggregated data from independent UN human rights special procedures, treaty monitoring bodies, and other affiliated UN agencies, and third-party submissions from independent national human rights institutions, regional intergovernmental bodies, and grassroots civil society organizations. The full set of three reference documents for Antigua and Barbuda’s upcoming review is publicly accessible via the official UN designated online portal. The review session will be hosted in the Assembly Hall on the third floor of Building A at the Palais des Nations, the UN’s Geneva headquarters. Established in April 2008, the UPR is a unique peer-led accountability mechanism designed to assess the human rights performance of every single UN member state, with all 193 nations having completed three full review cycles to date. For the ongoing fourth UPR cycle, participating states are required to present tangible progress updates on their implementation of voluntary commitments and accepted recommendations from prior review rounds, alongside an overview of new human rights policy developments, legislative changes, and on-the-ground outcomes that have emerged in the country since its 2021 assessment. Antigua and Barbuda’s official national delegation for the 6 November review will be headed by seasoned diplomat Mr. E.P. Chet Greene, the country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs. A three-nation troika of rapporteurs, comprising representatives from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, and Indonesia, has been appointed to oversee procedural coordination and document curation for Antigua and Barbuda’s review. The full live webcast link for the session, the running order of registered speakers, and all pre-submitted and delivered statements from the proceeding will be published in real time on the official Human Rights Council online portal. The UPR Working Group is slated to formally adopt the full set of drafted recommendations for Antigua and Barbuda during a closing session held between 14:30 and 18:00 GMT+1 on Friday, 13 November 2026, at which point Antigua and Barbuda’s delegation will have the opportunity to publicly state its official position on each recommendation put forward during the review.