Belgium’s fourth Universal Periodic Review puts prisons, discrimination, asylum reception, policing and freedom of religion or belief under renewed international scrutiny.
Belgium has received 300 recommendations from fellow United Nations member states following its latest examination under the UN Universal Periodic Review, with concerns ranging from prison overcrowding and racial discrimination to asylum reception, police conduct and freedom of religion or belief. According to the UN Working Group report on Belgium, the country has already supported 165 recommendations, while 104 were left for further examination and 31 were formally “noted”.
Belgium’s fourth UN human rights review
Belgium appeared before the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group on 6 May 2026, represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Prévot.
The UPR is the mechanism through which the human rights record of every UN member state is periodically examined by other governments. Belgium was previously reviewed in 2011, 2016 and 2021. The Belgian Foreign Ministry describes the process as a peer review intended both to recognise progress and to identify areas where further work is needed.
The scale of the latest exercise was considerable: 119 delegations made statements during the interactive dialogue.
Belgium told the Working Group that it remained strongly committed to multilateralism and universal human rights, while acknowledging that challenges persisted in several areas.
The recommendations recorded in the report are not judgments of the Human Rights Council itself. As the document makes clear, they reflect the positions of the individual states that submitted them and should not be understood as collectively endorsed findings by the Working Group.
Prison overcrowding draws repeated criticism
One of the most persistent themes in the review is the condition of Belgium’s prisons.
Belgium itself acknowledged that detention conditions remained under heavy pressure because of persistent prison overcrowding. The government reported that more than €600 million had been released urgently to increase capacity and renovate ageing infrastructure, while expert groups were examining both short-term improvements and structural reforms.
The response did not prevent a long list of governments from calling for further action.
Austria, Czechia, Ghana, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Morocco, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland and several other countries urged Belgium to reduce overcrowding, make greater use of alternatives to imprisonment and ensure that detention conditions comply with international standards, including the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules.
Spain specifically recommended greater use of alternatives to imprisonment.
Closely linked to the prison issue is Belgium’s still incomplete ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, or OPCAT.
More than a dozen countries called on Belgium to complete ratification or establish a fully functioning national preventive mechanism capable of visiting all places where people are deprived of their liberty.
Belgium explained that parliamentary approval for ratification had already been obtained, but that its federal structure complicated creation of a mechanism covering institutions under federal, regional and community jurisdiction.
Racism and ethnic profiling remain major concerns
Another striking feature of the report is the number of recommendations dealing with racism, discrimination and racial or ethnic profiling.
Belgium told the UN that ethnic profiling was prohibited and that a reference framework governing police stops and professional profiling had been adopted in 2023.
It also pointed to the launch in October 2025 of an interministerial conference on equal opportunities, disability and combating racism, intended to improve coordination between Belgium’s different levels of government.
Nevertheless, countries including Canada, Ghana, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Portugal and South Africa called for stronger national or inter-federal measures against racism.
Several recommendations specifically address police practices.
Djibouti urged Belgium to continue combating profiling by public administrations and police based on ethnicity or skin colour. Malawi called for continued action against ethnic profiling by law enforcement, while Brazil recommended that Belgium also monitor the impact of new technologies on minority groups.
Belgium supported many of these recommendations.
A further group concerning investigations of racist incidents involving police officers, compulsory recording of identity checks and additional accountability mechanisms remained among the recommendations still being examined.
Police violence and accountability
Police conduct appears separately in numerous recommendations.
Türkiye called for continued efforts to address concerns about excessive use of force and abuse of authority. Malawi recommended independent investigations into allegations of police violence, while Belarus called for accountability for such violence.
Other states proposed stronger oversight mechanisms, publication of police use-of-force statistics and investigations of incidents involving racial discrimination.
Belgium responded that the police statute prohibits discrimination and requires impartiality, integrity and respect for human dignity. It said police training includes non-discrimination, racism, professional profiling and the lawful use of force, while conduct is subject to internal and external oversight.
The number of recommendations nevertheless indicates that policing remains one of the areas receiving sustained scrutiny from other states.
Asylum reception and court rulings
Belgium’s asylum reception system is another significant element of the review.
The Belgian delegation acknowledged that the number of available reception places does not always allow everyone legally entitled to reception to be immediately accommodated in the regular system.
The authorities said that 2,000 federally financed places in Brussels’ homeless reception network had helped provide temporary accommodation for people waiting to enter the regular reception network.
Belgium also referred to measures adopted following the European Court of Human Rights judgment in Camara v. Belgium, which concerned failure by Belgian authorities to execute a domestic court decision ordering accommodation for an asylum seeker.
Several governments called explicitly for stronger compliance with court decisions.
Germany recommended that Belgium ensure full compliance with national and European judgments concerning asylum reception and guarantee adequate accommodation for applicants.
Brazil similarly called for full compliance with reception obligations and implementation of court decisions. Austria and Norway raised comparable concerns.
Other recommendations concern the principle of non-refoulement, access to basic services, protection against arbitrary detention and the particular vulnerabilities of migrant and refugee children.
Religious freedom enters the UN scrutiny
Although freedom of religion or belief occupies a smaller part of the document than prisons, racism or migration, it appears in several notable recommendations.
Belgium supported a recommendation from Côte d’Ivoire stating that religious minorities should not be subjected to any form of discrimination.
Other freedom of religion or belief recommendations were placed among those that Belgium was still to examine.
Malaysia urged Belgium to:
“Ensure the full protection of freedom of religion or belief, including the right to peacefully manifest religion and belief in public institutions.”
Türkiye recommended that Belgium address what it described as recurring legal and administrative obstacles at federal and regional levels disproportionately affecting Muslim communities, including in light of relevant Belgian court rulings.
Tunisia also called for continued efforts against discrimination based on ethnicity, religion and language, as well as hate speech and Islamophobia.
Pakistan separately proposed a national action plan specifically addressing Islamophobia in traditional and new media and political organisations. That recommendation was among those that Belgium noted rather than supported.
The report does not make a general finding that Belgium is violating freedom of religion or belief, nor does it identify most individual religious minorities. The recommendations instead show that religious discrimination and the practical ability to manifest belief have entered the international peer-review discussion concerning Belgium.
That distinction is important. The UPR is a diplomatic human rights review mechanism, not a court, and recommendations express the positions of the governments submitting them.
Employment discrimination also under review
Discrimination in employment appears repeatedly.
Belgium acknowledged during the dialogue that, while numerous measures existed at regional level, sustained efforts were still being made across different levels of government to obtain concrete results against employment discrimination.
Poland recommended stronger implementation of safeguards against discrimination affecting minorities in both housing and employment.
Egypt specifically urged Belgium to combat discrimination in housing and employment against migrants and refugees, while Nepal recommended stronger efforts to promote equality and non-discrimination in the labour market.
Haiti called for action against discrimination in recruitment, including discrimination connected with pregnancy and maternity as well as migration status.
These recommendations place employment within a broader pattern in the report: Belgium has extensive anti-discrimination legislation and institutions, but a number of states questioned whether those protections consistently translate into equal treatment in practice.
Belgium’s human rights institutions remain unfinished
Another recurring issue is the architecture of Belgium’s own human rights institutions.
The Federal Institute for the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights was created in 2019 and obtained B-status accreditation in 2023 under the international system governing national human rights institutions.
Belgium told the UN that amendments adopted in 2024 had strengthened the institution’s compliance with the Paris Principles, the UN-recognised standards concerning independence and effectiveness of national human rights bodies.
The Flemish Institute for Human Rights, meanwhile, was established separately in 2022.
What Belgium still lacks is a fully comprehensive national institution covering all fundamental rights throughout the entire territory with the highest A-status accreditation.
Germany recommended further progress towards a fully independent national institution with A status. Canada proposed an inter-federal coordination mechanism, while other states called for stronger institutional coverage, resources and independence.
Belgium supported several of those recommendations.
Gender-based violence and women’s rights
Belgium highlighted several areas of progress concerning women’s rights.
The government reported that the pension gap between women and men fell from 24.4% to 20.5% between 2019 and 2023, while women reached 37.3% representation on the boards of listed companies and public enterprises between 2017 and 2024.
Belgium also pointed to reforms placing consent at the centre of sexual criminal law, the establishment of ten sexual violence support centres and the adoption of legislation dealing with femicide.
Other countries nevertheless called for further action.
Recommendations include increasing shelter capacity for victims of gender-based violence, expanding specialist services, training police officers, prosecutors and judges, and ensuring that services are accessible to women and girls with disabilities.
Children and corporal punishment
Children’s rights generated another significant group of recommendations.
Belgium acknowledged that its legislation does not yet contain an explicit prohibition on corporal punishment of children in all circumstances, although it argued that children’s physical and psychological integrity is already protected through constitutional, criminal and civil law.
Ireland, Norway, Chile and Iceland were among states calling for explicit legal prohibition.
A separate debate concerned marriage before the age of 18.
Belgium explained that marriage involving minors can take place only as a tightly restricted exception requiring consent and judicial authorisation.
Several countries nevertheless recommended eliminating those exceptions altogether. Belgium noted rather than supported those recommendations.
Other proposals deal with child poverty, access to education, children with disabilities, migrant children and protection against online sexual exploitation.
Disability rights and inclusive education
Inclusive education is another major subject.
Belgium pointed to the addition of Article 22 ter to its Constitution in 2021, recognising the right of persons with disabilities to full and effective inclusion in society and to reasonable accommodation.
Yet numerous governments recommended stronger action to remove barriers to mainstream education for children with disabilities.
Italy called for measures to remove barriers that could marginalise children with disabilities, while Peru recommended accessible complaint mechanisms and stronger federal protections.
Switzerland raised another sensitive issue, recommending an end to the detention of people with mental disorders in prisons and access instead to facilities adapted to their needs.
Artificial intelligence becomes a human rights issue
The review also reflects the expanding human rights debate surrounding technology.
Belgium supported a recommendation from Albania calling for the development and use of artificial intelligence to incorporate robust accountability mechanisms capable of preventing human rights violations.
Brazil, in its broader recommendation concerning racism and discrimination, also called for monitoring the impact of new technologies on minorities.
The inclusion of AI alongside longstanding concerns such as prison conditions, racial discrimination and freedom of religion illustrates how the Universal Periodic Review is increasingly extending into emerging areas of human rights governance.
Belgium points to progress but faces a substantial follow-up agenda
Belgium presented itself in Geneva as a country committed to multilateralism and continuous improvement in human rights protection.
Its fourth UPR nevertheless produced a substantial catalogue of concerns.
Of the 300 recommendations contained in the Working Group report, Belgium immediately supported 165. Another 104 were listed for further examination, with Belgium due to provide its position no later than the Human Rights Council’s 63rd session. A further 31 were noted.
The distinction matters because accepted recommendations provide a public benchmark for assessing Belgium’s actions before its next Universal Periodic Review.
The Belgian Foreign Ministry has itself stressed that the value of the UPR lies in recognising that no country has a perfect human rights record and that every state has room for improvement.
For Belgium, the latest review identifies where many of its international counterparts believe that work remains unfinished: overcrowded prisons, racial profiling, discrimination, police accountability, asylum reception, disability inclusion and the effective protection of freedom of religion or belief.
The coming test will not simply be how many recommendations Belgium formally accepts, but how the commitments it supports are translated into legislation, administrative practice and measurable protection for people living in the country.
