The UN Human Rights Treaty Body system has experienced both positive and negative developments over the last 12 months. Of continuing concern from an NGO perspective is the general lack of visibility and general awareness of the treaty system’s recommendations and decisions, and the lack of implementation by states. While most treaty bodies are facilitating more transparency and deeper NGO involvement in their proceedings, the trend toward emphasis on a list of issues and state response instead of the original state report means that the relevance of NGO input is slipping. Several recommendations are offered at the end of this report (pages 6-7) to help address these concerns. The growth trends in number of ratifying states, numbers of reports and individual complaints, and the development of a new universal periodic mechanism under the Human Rights Council, makes it imperative for the treaty body system to manage and plan for workloads and growth trends, in order to effectively respond to greater awareness and use of its mechanisms.
The Advocates for Human Rights volunteer Penny Parker has submitted a report to the United Nations (UN) describing changes in the UN treaty body system over the past year. Please click below to read the report.