Australia's fourth Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – draft national report

Overview

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council peer-review process that considers the human rights records of each UN Member State every four and a half years. The review is unique because it is led by Member States and covers a broad range of international human rights obligations. The UPR differs from UN human rights treaty body reviews that are led by committees of experts and focus on specific treaties. The UPR will assess the implementation of Australia’s human rights obligations as provided in the UN Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the seven core human rights treaties to which Australia is party and applicable international humanitarian law.

As part of each UPR cycle, Member States submit a national report and appear before the UN in Geneva to respond to questions from other Member States.

Australia’s next national report is due by 6 October 2025 and Australia’s appearance is tentatively scheduled for 26 January 2026. This will be Australia’s fourth UPR.

Member States made 344 recommendations to Australia at its third UPR in 2021. In its response, the Australian Government agreed to 177 of the recommendations.

Australia’s draft National Report

In collaboration with other Australian Government departments and state and territory governments, the Attorney-General’s Department has prepared a draft of Australia’s National Report. The draft National Report details action Australian governments have taken to implement the recommendations Australia agreed to in our 2021 UPR appearance and broader progress made with respect to human rights obligations.

Voluntary commitments

During the appearance, Australia may choose to make voluntary commitments. Making voluntary commitments demonstrates Australia’s continuing strong engagement with the UPR process and highlights ongoing efforts to promote and protect human rights domestically and internationally. Australia has made voluntary commitments at its three previous UPR appearances.

Consultation process

Why we are consulting

The UPR is an opportunity to engage on the international stage with other UN Member States to highlight Australia’s ongoing efforts to promote and protect human rights domestically and internationally whilst also acknowledging the areas where further work is required. 

The consultation process will help ensure that the Australian Government can effectively consider the views provided by the public on Australia’s draft National Report.

We are seeking your views and feedback on the following:

• Australia's draft National Report
• the implementation status of the 344 recommendations Australia received at its UPR in 2021, and
• potential voluntary commitments Australia could make during its appearance.

Australia’s National Report (Draft) [PDF 8.32KB]

Australia’s National Report (Draft) [DOCX 3.21MB]

Australia’s third-cycle UPR recommendations 2021 – Status of implementation (Draft) [PDF 9.28KB]

Australia’s third-cycle UPR recommendations 2021 – Status of implementation (Draft) [DOCX 3.78MB]

Who we want to hear from

We want to hear from anyone with an interest in Australia’s human rights issues. This includes individuals with lived experience, human rights experts, peak bodies, advocates, the legal sector, advocacy providers, academics, non-government organisations and government organisations. Your feedback and perspectives are invaluable to the UPR process.

How to share your views

We invite you to share your views using the ‘Have your say’ link below. You can choose to share your views and provide feedback using the free text fields or you can choose to upload a single submission.

Due to the tight timeframes for lodging Australia’s National Report with the UN, we are unable to offer extensions on the deadline.

Publishing responses

You can submit your feedback under your name or anonymously. We intend to publish all responses at the end of the consultation period on our consultation hub. There will be some mandatory consent questions to confirm whether you agree to your response being made public. 

If you would like part of your response to remain in confidence, please provide the confidential information separately and clearly indicate the information you would like to remain confidential. Please refrain from including personal information about other individuals in your feedback or in the body of your submission. 

Next steps

We will consider all feedback received as we finalise the draft National Report. We will also use the feedback to prepare for Australia’s UPR appearance, including finalising any voluntary commitments the government may wish to make.