UN Country Record
In development
Every UN member state is reviewed every 4–5 years on its human-rights record through the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), examined by other governments, who make recommendations it can accept or decline. It is where countries speak most publicly about rights.
It is only part of the picture, and carries no binding consequences: it shows what states say they will work on, not what they do. Here you can hold it up against other indicators — independent UN experts and mechanisms, and country indices and rankings — and watch how they compare over time.
What they were asked
What they said yes to
This is a diplomatic position, not a rights score. Saying yes commits a government to nothing specific — the UPR has no enforcement — and the gravest concerns are often the ones quietly “noted”. What it actually does shows up in the independent indices below.
Browse recommendations
What the acceptance rate reveals - and conceals
Acceptance is a diplomatic act, not a legal obligation. Several structural patterns inflate acceptance rates:
- Diplomatic reciprocity. Countries tend to accept each other's recommendations - especially within regional blocs - to preserve goodwill for their own upcoming reviews.
- Bloc dynamics. The African Group, the OIC, and GRULAC regularly coordinate recommendations around sovereignty, development, and poverty - themes that are easy to accept and hard to verify.
- Vague language. Phrasing like "continue efforts to promote human rights" is accepted precisely because it commits to nothing specific.
- Acceptance ≠ implementation. The UPR has no enforcement mechanism. A country can accept 95% of recommendations and implement none of them.
Beyond the UPR, countries make binding legal commitments by ratifying international human rights treaties. Reservations are formal carve-outs that limit which parts of a treaty apply.
The fuller picture
This is the real signal — measured on the ground by groups independent of the UN process: press freedom, corruption, rule of law, democracy, civic space, academic freedom, quality of life and state stability. Where these diverge from a high acceptance rate is exactly where “saying yes” and “doing” come apart.
Adjust what matters
The horizontal axis is what a country says — its UPR acceptance rate. The vertical axis is what is independently measured: the sliders set how much each index counts toward that composite. A country far to the right but low down says yes a lot while scoring poorly on the ground. Set a factor to 0 to exclude it; click any dot to open that country.