The treaty monitoring bodies

1. International treaty bodies have been created under the six main international human rights instruments presently in force, five of which are serviced by the Support Services Branch (SSB) within OHCHR (HRC, CESCR, CERD, CAT and CRC). The essential function of these bodies, composed of international independent experts representing various regional entities and legal systems, is to examine measures (legislative, administrative, judicial and other) taken by States to promote and protect effectively the rights guaranteed in those instruments and, under specific conditions, to offer an avenue for victims of violations to seek remedies. For this purpose treaty bodies have three main tools: the reporting procedure, common to all treaty bodies; the individual communications procedure (the optional protocol to ICCPR, declaration under art.14 CERD and art. 22 CAT; now also optional protocol to CEDAW); and the inquiry procedure (art. 20 CAT and now CEDAW).

2. Support to the activities carried out by the treaty bodies is essential for the promotion and protection of human rights not only at the international level, but also, most importantly, at the national and local level.

Ratification of international human rights instruments

3. A first step in bridging the gap between norms and reality is to encourage the ratification by States of the main instruments. Progress has been achieved in this area (from 449 ratifications as at 1 January 1990 to more than 900 today). Current efforts in the framework of the Secretary-General's campaign for universal ratification are sustained at the international, regional and national levels, including through advocacy during major United Nations events such as the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance efforts of our own field offices, activities under HURIST and other types of cooperation with specialized agencies and United Nations and other competent bodies, and through the organization of regional and national-level activities.

Drafting of reports

4. Treaty bodies have an essential role in encouraging implementation through dialogue with States parties in the framework of the reporting procedure. OHCHR has the responsibility to assist the committees by ensuring the efficient functioning of the system and by facilitating a high-quality dialogue between committee members and States parties. One prerequisite is the commitment of States parties to produce high-quality reports, which provide an opportunity for the review, by the treaty bodies, of existing or envisaged measures of implementation at the national level, and enable the treaty bodies to identify appropriate solutions for problem areas and engage in effective follow-up. OHCHR/SSB already plays an important role in this regard, through the provision of technical assistance to States in the drafting of their reports. Once reports are available for consideration, there is a need to ensure the efficient functioning of the treaty bodies.

Support to treaty bodies

5. The SSB has the responsibility to ensure the efficient functioning of the treaty bodies. The various problems linked to the lack of adequate visibility of the work of the treaty bodies, the reporting "burden", the backlog of reports and delays in processing individual complaints, as well as the lack of follow-up, are well known and have been the subject of discussions by the treaty bodies, the meeting of chairpersons, an independent expert, the Commission on Human Rights (with reactions and suggestions from various States and other entities to the expert's recommendations), and an independent academic study of the treaty system due to be finalized in the near future. A number of measures are already being implemented/envisaged by the Office to help assist the treaty bodies in their functioning. It should be recalled, however, that to a large extent the treaty bodies are themselves responsible for adjusting their methods of work and accepting or rejecting suggestions aimed at rationalizing their work. Among the measures already being implemented to improve the effectiveness of the treaty bodies are the following:

Resources, including additional staff support

6. OHCHR obtained two additional regular posts to service the treaty bodies in 2000-2001. Repeated efforts to obtain additional regular resources cannot succeed without much stronger support from States through the regular United Nations budgetary process. The explosion of new demands has reduced the proportion of total resources devoted to treaty bodies. The Global Plan of Action, launched in the 2000 Annual Appeal, which expanded the previous Plans of Action to support CRC and CESCR, will almost double staff support to treaty bodies, but cannot be fully implemented on a stable basis without additional and regular support from donors. It should be noted that the staff dealing with treaty bodies have also been reinforced with the support of six Junior Professional Officers. Only increased staff and resources will enable OHCHR to facilitate efforts by treaty bodies to adopt more consistent methods of work; further progress requires experts to change long-established practices, or the provision of significant additional resources (e.g. for additional meeting time for CERD or CAT to hold pre-sessional meetings).

7. In order to provide treaty bodies with the support necessary to allow them to undertake their work efficiently, the Secretariat drew up a project called "Programme to strengthen the support to treaty bodies and complaints procedures", initially for a two-year period. The objectives identified by this project were: (a) to ensure that the average time between the receipt of a State party's report and its consideration by the corresponding committee will be one year and that the capacity of the Secretariat to support research and analysis will be significantly strengthened; (b) to ensure that the time between the receipt of an individual complaint and a final decision by the relevant committee will be no more than 18 months; (c) to devise, test and implement new initiatives to improve the follow-up of committee recommendations and observations by the States parties; and (d) to facilitate the continuation of the debate on rationalizing the functioning of the treaty body system.

8. The point of departure of this programme was the situation analysis and recommendations contained in the plans of action and the reports of the meetings of the chairpersons of the treaty bodies. Since many of the problems identified are of a complex nature, the programme selected priority areas based on their importance and the prospects for achieving an impact. The exploration and testing of some long-term measures are expected to provide the basis for structural improvements and future programmes.

Reporting burden and delays

9. The two treaty bodies that face the greatest backlogs, CESCR and CRC, have already taken action facilitated by additional staff support provided under their respective Plans of Action: CESCR held a third extraordinary session in 2000 and will hold another in 2001, and CRC has increased the number of reports examined from six to nine per session. Further reductions in the backlog will depend on the pace at which reports are submitted and may not be possible under the current treaty body structure (e.g. based on independent experts who already meet in Geneva for three months every year). Efforts to deal with the problem of non-reporting States or to reduce the reporting burden on States have been discussed and examined for years, and some of the proposals often suggested (e.g. for consolidated or focused reports) are already being used by some treaty bodies. The specificity of treaty provisions makes further changes difficult. The two new Optional Protocols to CRC integrated related reporting into the normal reporting process on CRC, but their separate initial reports will place that Committee under extreme pressure for several years.

Meeting time

10. In order to reduce the backlog of States parties' reports and communications, meeting time has been increased from 41 weeks a year in 1997 to 48 weeks in 2001, with additional requests for further increases already on the books.

11. It is estimated that over the last two bienniums there has been a progressive increase in work of 20 % per annum, which corresponds to the increased session time of the five Geneva-based treaty bodies and the annual meeting of the chairpersons.

Year	No. of meetings per year	No. of weeks in session per year	No. of sessions that overlap*	No. of sessions that run on**
1997	13	41	-	-
1998	13	44	5	5
1999	13	44	5	4
2000	14	49	7	3
2001	14	48	5	4
2002***	14	53

** Sessions that follow each other with less than five working days between them, usually finishing on a Friday with the next beginning the following Monday.

*** The additional sessions or meeting time were requested during 2000 and will be included in the respective treaty body's annual reports of 2001 with their corresponding PBI.

Communication flow, information-sharing and cooperation among treaty bodies and with other human rights mechanisms and United Nations bodies and agencies

12. Many efforts and improvements have already been introduced by OHCHR, including the increased use of electronic resources and Internet technology. The issue remains high on the agenda of the change management efforts of the Office. Attempts to increase cooperation among the treaty bodies and between them and other human rights mechanisms are often impeded by budgetary constraints, but efforts are already being planned and implemented. In-house training for desks officers or field staff on the specific provisions, scope and requirements of each treaty body would be useful in this regard and should be planned and carried out in a more systematic manner. Another useful contribution to the work of the treaty bodies would be to facilitate the input and participation of implementation partners in thematic discussion days, round tables and general comments organized/developed by treaty bodies. Human rights mainstreaming efforts rely heavily on the work of the treaty bodies, and increased attention to human rights by United Nations agencies has already resulted in improved cooperation (e.g. with WHO and UNDP) and in efforts by OHCHR to include the treaty bodies in its work with national human rights institutions. Further improvement is needed and expected, but much attention has already been given to such issues.

Technical assistance and follow-up

13. OHCHR already provides technical assistance for reporting, and efforts are being made to ensure that OHCHR's technical assistance activities do reflect the recommendations and concerns identified by treaty bodies. In some cases (e.g. CRC and UNICEF), other United Nations agencies and bodies already use the work of treaty bodies to guide their activities, and efforts continue to encourage such links within the United Nations system. OHCHR is encouraging capacity-building at the national level (through offices of ombudsmen, regional/national institutional structures and regional partners of the United Nations and other relevant institutions) to help integrate recommendations by treaty bodies (concluding observations) into programmes and activities.

Processing of individual communications (Petitions Team)

14. In November 2000, OHCHR reorganized SSB and created a "Petitions Team" to deal comprehensively with the individual communications procedures for the three committees that have them: HRC, CERD and CAT, while ensuring that this task would continue to be integrated with the servicing of the meetings and other treaty body functions. Provisions are being made to maintain the flow of information and ensure that the individual communications procedure set up by the new Optional Protocol to CEDAW will be consistent with the new structure. The processing of individual communications is a core activity of OHCHR. It entails screening and evaluating incoming correspondence, registering cases, preparing draft decisions on admissibility and on the merits of individual cases, providing uniform legal advice to the three committees with communications procedures, and ensuring follow-up to committee decisions. Follow-up may also entail missions in situ by specially designated committee members to the States parties concerned and endorsing the provision of technical assistance, e.g. advice with regard to the adoption of national enabling legislation or with regard to amendments to other laws and regulations.

15. At present, the Petitions Team consists of a Coordinator and seven staff. The Petitions Team at OHCHR does not service the procedure under CEDAW, which is serviced from Headquarters. However, the Petitions Team may also have to service the communications procedure under article 77 of the International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, when it enters into force.

16. All the communications procedures are experiencing considerable growth in terms of the number of communications received and the complexity of the issues raised. This reflects developments in the regional bodies - the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights.

17. It must be borne in mind that approximately 30 pieces of correspondence pertaining to the petitions procedures arrive each day. One of the major problems facing the Petitions Team is addressing a backlog of correspondence written in languages other than the working languages of the Secretariat.

18. In addition to the backlog, it should be noted that the Petitions Team must analyse complex factors and legal issues, including trial transcripts from many countries with different legal systems.

19. The Petitions Team intends to coordinate follow-up activities of the three committees and, at a later date, endeavour to expand cooperation with regional bodies, e.g. by exchanging information and developing joint strategies for implementation.