Our Stakeholder report to Bhutan’s Universal Periodic Review, led by Dr Amna Nazir, makes specific recommendations to the government on the advancement of freedom of religion or belief implementation of which would also see Bhutan moving towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 10 and Goal 16.
Researchers
Consultancy background
In March 2024, the UPR Project at BCU submitted a Stakeholder Report to Bhutan’s fourth UPR cycle, led by Dr Amna Nazir. This submission focuses on freedom of religion or belief. We make recommendations to the Government of Bhutan on this issue, implementation of which would also see Bhutan moving towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 10 which aims to reduce inequalities based on discriminating factors such as religion and Goal 16 which aims for peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all and effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.
On 16 August 2024, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published its Stakeholder Summary Report for Bhutan, which cited the Stakeholder Report submitted by UPR Project at BCU:
“The UPR Project at BCU (UPR-BCU) also urged Bhutan to consider ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in consultation with national stakeholders.” (para 2)
“UPR-BCU also strongly encouraged Bhutan to grant access to the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.” (para 7)
“UPR-BCU noted that minority religious groups continued to remain at risk, due to Bhutan’s poorly formulated anti-conversion laws that required amendment. Bhutan’s laws governing freedom of religion or belief were overly broad and lack detailed definitions, particularly of the terms under which conversions were prohibited such as “force,” “coercion” and “inducement.”” (para 23)
“In this regard, UPR-BCU recommended that Bhutan accelerate the registration of all peaceful groups which seek to register under the Religious Organizations Act of Bhutan and provide the necessary support to any such group(s) seeking assistance with the process.” (para 24)
Following the citations in the Stakeholder Summary Report. The outcome of the review published on 18 December 2024 in the Report of the Working Group stated that the recommendation will be examined by Bhutan, which will provide responses in due time, but no later than the fifty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council:
Review the registration system for religious organizations to ensure that registration is not a prerequisite for exercising the right to freedom of religion or belief. Recommending State: Kingdom of the Netherlands (129.61)
Enhance freedom of religion by ensuring that all religious groups can freely practice their faith without discrimination and allowing the construction of places of worship for these groups in line with their beliefs. Recommending State: Gambia (129.62)
129.108 Ensure that all Bhutanese children have equal access to education regardless of religion or belief. Recommending State: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (129.108)
Ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Recommending State: Burkina Faso (129.5); Luxembourg (129.6); Germany (129.7); Estonia (129.8); Italy (129.9); Brazil (129.10); Niger (129.11); Nepal (129.12); Spain (129.13); Botswana (129.14); Iceland (129.15); Chile (129.16); Colombia (129.17); Portugal (129.35);
These Member State recommendations are consistent with the categories of recommendations identified in the UPR Project at BCU’s Report for Bhutan.
About the UPR Project at BCU
The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has been engaging with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2016. Under the auspice of the Human Rights Council, the UPR is an intergovernmental process providing a review of the human rights record of all Member States.
Through the UPR Project at BCU, the CHR we engage with the UPR through taking part in the UPR Pre-sessions, providing capacity building for UPR stakeholders and National Human Rights Institutions, and the filing of stakeholder reports in selected sessions. The UPR Project is designed to help meet the challenges facing the safeguarding of human rights around the world, and to help ensure that UPR recommendations are translated into domestic legal change in member state parliaments.
We fully support the UPR ethos of encouraging the sharing of best practice globally to protect everyone's human rights. The UPR Project at BCU engages with the UPR regularly as a stakeholder, having submitted numerous reports and been cited by the OHCHR.