HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE DISCUSSES REINFORCEMENT OF FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

The Human Rights Committee, which is charged with overseeing implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, this afternoon discussed the reinforcement of its follow-up activities to Views under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant and Concluding Observations under article 40 of the Covenant.

The Committee took up again a working paper on the reinforcement of follow-up activities to Views and Concluding Observations (CCPR/C/88/CRP.1/Rev.1), which had been considered at the March session in New York, following which certain changes had been made. Among the recommendations in the paper were that more time could be devoted to the consideration of the interim follow-up reports and the reports on Concluding Observations during the Committee sessions. Further, a member of the Committee should be assigned to develop a media strategy. A budget could be set aside each year for follow-up missions to States parties, and at least one mission could be carried out annually. With regards to recommendations with respect to follow-up to individual complaints, the Committee could consider the nature of all responses from States parties, and, upon receipt of adequate information, decide whether the responses were satisfactory.

Ivan Shearer, Committee Expert, introducing the elements of the working paper on recommendations with respect to follow-up to individual complaints, suggested, among other things, an expansion of the categories covering “unsatisfactory responses” to the Committee’s follow-up to cases of violations of the Covenant reported under individual complaints, in order to clarify this issue further, both for the Committee and for the State party involved. Further, the Committee should discuss the recommendation in the text that the Special Rapporteur on Follow-up could wish to review the current Chart of Compliance, and bring cases in which the States parties’ responses had not been categorised to the attention of the Committee for consideration.

During the discussion, which focused on follow-up to individual complaints, Experts raised a range of issues, including the need for other categories under “unsatisfactory response”, namely “the lack of response” and “partial response”; the need to move away from neutral language and make it clear as to whether a country had or not honoured its obligations; and a suggested deletion of a point in the document which said that treaty bodies should ensure that the ratio decidendi of treaty body decisions was sufficiently and coherently reasoned and argued, which was acceded to by Mr. Shearer.

The Chairperson of the Committee suggested that the Committee consider criteria for evaluating States responses to concluding observations, and to transmit these to the Special Rapporteur for Follow-up to Concluding Observations. In the context of this discussion, Experts said, among other things, that the issue of analysis certainly meant that there was a need for more than one interlocutor, not just the State party; that the problem of follow-up related to all the points retained and contained in the concluding observations; the need for a time-frame for implementation in particular with regards to certain recommendations such as those covering urgent situations; and that follow-up could not be separated from report design.


It was agreed that Mr. Shearer would revise his working paper to include the concerns raised during the meeting, and that the Committee would continue to consider the paper at its next session.

The next public meeting of the Committee will be at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 31 October, when it is scheduled to consider the progress reports of the Special Rapporteur for Follow-up to Concluding Observations and of the Special Rapporteur for Follow-up to Views.

For use of the information media; not an official record

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