HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONTINUES DEBATE ON DRAFT REVISED GUIDELINES FOR STATE PARTY REPORTS

The Human Rights Committee this afternoon continued its discussion, begun earlier this session, of draft revised guidelines for reports to be submitted by States parties under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. At the beginning of the meeting, it also discussed the possible establishment of a working group on working methods.

In a continued discussion of draft revised guidelines for State party reports, the Committee focused on the three paragraphs relating to a simplified optional reporting procedure, according to which States' responses to a list of questions from the Committee would be considered as the report. Committee Expert Helen Keller, the rapporteur for the draft revised guidelines, highlighted that in the draft the new proposal could not applied to the first, second or third report; and that both the Committee and the State concerned had to agree to the procedure.

Several Experts felt the new procedure should be more flexible, and specifically that it should be available sooner, either following the presentation of a State's initial or second report. A couple of Experts recalled that this was not really a new suggestion. Some years ago, the Committee had adopted a proposal that States not respond on each and every article of the Covenant but present a more targeted report, based on the Committee's questions, as of the third periodic report. An Expert was concerned because, as all knew, some countries presented much better and some much less good reports. How would they formulate criteria for judging which States were ready to move on to the new procedure following their third periodic reports? An Expert drew attention to the issue of documentation in regard to the new procedure. There was no mandate in the programme budget for written replies from States parties and so currently those documents were not prioritized, as regular reports were. If they approved this new system, and the written replies were considered as the report, they could perhaps avoid the delays in translation they had been experiencing.

The Committee then agreed to move forward with the new streamlined procedure, which could be applied following the submission of a State party's initial report, and asked Ms. Keller to draft a short clarifying text for submission to the Committee at the next session, responding to concerns expressed today.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Committee also held a discussion on a proposal to establish a working group on working methods. An Expert observed that such a group could review, improve and expedite the Committee's work in three key areas: with regard to the backlog in consideration of individual communications; with regard to the issue of non-reporting by States parties; and to look at how the Committee interacted with other treaty bodies, with a view to harmonizing and streamlining its work. Several Experts, however, had questions as to whether a working group on working methods was the best way to address those issues, noting the existence of a number of working groups and rapporteurs already established on related topics, and expressed concern about the provision of resources for the working group.

When the Committee meets tomorrow, at 10 a.m., it will announce bureau decisions and make public its concluding observations on country reports considered over the past three weeks before formally closing the work of its ninety-seventh session.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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