Second Preparatory Glion XI Policy Dialogue

This Policy Dialogue — co-hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, and the second in a series of three dialogues leading up to the Glion XI retreat in October — will focus on:
‘The key ingredients of success – Best practices in national-level implementation of gender equality and women’s rights-related human rights recommendations, and international support thereto.’

The Dialogue will take place on:
3 July 2025
14:00 – 17:00
Room XXII, Palais des Nations, Geneva

The second preparatory policy dialogue ahead of the Glion XI retreat (planned for October 2025) will aim to contribute to the improved delivery of the multilateral human rights system, as a critical contribution to the realisation of the BPfA and the SDGs, by focusing on a key challenge identified in the Political Declaration and Action Agenda, namely strengthening implementation and closing implementation gaps, especially by mobilising the UN human rights compliance mechanisms (which together provide a strong accountability framework – as called for in the Action Agenda).

Those human rights mechanisms (the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Special Procedures, and the Treaty Bodies), working together as a system, form one of the strongest implementation and accountability frameworks in the entire UN ecosystem. Firstly, their work is focused on strengthening the fulfilment of States’ international legal obligations (under international human rights law) – not merely political commitments. Second, each of the three mechanisms has its own particular strengths (the UPR is a State-to-State process, meaning the resulting recommendations carry significant political weight, the analyses and recommendations of Special Procedures mandates are based on country missions, meaning they reflect national contexts and local political realities, while Treaty Body reviews are quasi-judicial in nature – being led by distinguished experts in the field, and the resulting recommendations are particularly robust and detailed) – strengths that are complementary and mutually reinforcing (especially when recommendations are combined or ‘clustered’). Third, and crucially, reviews by the mechanisms are premised on the full involvement of the States concerned (which submit periodic reports or receive country missions, engage in dialogues with Treaty Bodies and the UPR Working Group, and oftentimes accept the recommendations issued by the mechanisms). Fourth, the UN human rights mechanisms promote implementation as a democratic rather than bureaucratic process – with the full involvement of not only central governments, but also parliaments, regional and local governments, civil society (including women’s rights groups), and national human rights institutions (NHRIs). Finally, UN agencies and programmes, as well as bilateral development partners, are becoming increasingly adept at leveraging States’ ‘review-implementation-reporting cycles’ with the mechanisms, as a key driver of change and progress.

Against this backdrop, the second pre-Glion policy dialogue will aim to gather best practices from around the world in the national-level implementation of UN gender equality and women’s rights-related human rights recommendations: how and to what extent were States able to implement those recommendations?, which parts of the State were involved (the government, the parliament, civil society, NHRIs, etc?), what was the impact of implementing measures on the enjoyment of human rights (using indicators)?, and how was information on progress, as well as new policy and legislative ideas for strong progress in the future, fed back into the mechanisms via national periodic reporting, and alternative (‘shadow’) reporting? By sharing good practices and success stories, and by identifying challenges and how they were overcome, it will be possible to discern ‘key ingredients of success’ – success factors that can then be replicated elsewhere.

What is more, the preparatory policy dialogue will also hear from UN development agencies and programmes, as well as bilateral development partners, on how they have been able to support States to strengthen their engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms, support the implementation of recommendations extended by the mechanisms (including by integrating those recommendations into country programming), and track and measure human rights impact and change (via data and indicators). In this way, the dialogue will contribute to a growing interest in, and mobilisation of, such ‘human rights powered approaches to sustainable development.’

Questions for discussion

1. What are notable good practices in terms of how government ministries, particular women’s or gender ministries, and state agencies, parliaments, and regional and local government actors have fed information and policy ideas into the UN human rights mechanisms?

2. What are notable good practices in terms of how civil society actors, especially women’s and girls’ rights and gender equality NGOs, and NHRIs, have fed information and policy ideas into the UN human rights mechanisms?

3. To what extent have the UN human rights mechanisms, following State reviews, delivered practical and useful recommendations to States, to accelerate progress on gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights?

4. What are notable good practices in terms of how government ministries and state agencies, parliaments, and regional and local government actors, have pursued the implementation of such recommendations, and tracked and measured impact?

5. What are notable good practices in terms of how civil society and NHRIs have advocated for and (where appropriate) supported the implementation of such recommendations, as well as tracked, measured, and reported on progress?

6. What are notable good practices, on the part of UN development agencies and programmes, as well as bilateral development partners, in leveraging country engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms to accelerate progress on gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights, including by feeding information and policy ideas into the mechanisms, by – at the request of and in full cooperation with the country concerned – supporting the implementation of recommendations (e.g., through technical assistance and capacity-building support), and by tracking and measuring progress (through data gathering)?

7. How to further strengthen the foregoing so that State engagement with the UN human rights mechanisms can make a critical contributing to accelerating progress towards the BPfA and the SDGs leaving no one behind?