Summary of 2014

2014 was potentially an important year for the human rights treaty bodies. In April the UN General Assembly adopted resolution 68/268, providing a substantial increase in resources and setting in place several reforms that will hopefully strengthen the system going forward.

From an overall system perspective, here is a summary of some of the key outputs:

Item	Number	comment
Concluding observations & recommendations	·      131 sets of recommendations ·      approx. 1400 pages ·      approx. 6700 total recommendations	Average = 11 pages & 50 recommendations per state party report
State reports received during the year	94 initial & periodic reports + 18 common core reports	Note that these numbers resulted in a modest reduction of the system backlog, since 131 reports were reviewed & only 94 new reports were received in the same period
State reports reviewed	·      131 reports ·      approx. 8553 pages ·      approx. 63% exceeded the recommended page limits ·      approx. 78% were not submitted within the required due date	Average of 66 pages per report, which is 60% longer than the 40 pages recommended for most reports (initial reports are the main exception, with 60 page limit, but they comprise less than 5% of the total number of reports) (CRC reports also had a 120 page limit during this period)
Cases/decisions issued	127	·      This is an approx 20% increase over prior years ·      Still missing the decisions from CAT’s November session (approx 10-15 more expected)
New ratifications	58 (2.7% increase from 2013)	·      This includes ratifications of treaties (39) and ratify/accept individual complaint mechanisms (19). ·      This represents more ratifications than 2013 (46/2.2%) and about the same as 2012 (59/2.9%)
New instruments enter into force	CRC OPIC	the individual complaints mechanism of the Convention on the Rights of the Child was the only new instrument in 2014
Treaty body experts/countries	172 experts from 87 countries
New general comments	5 new general comments (including one joint comment)	1. CCPR #35 liberty & security of person 2. CEDAW #32 women asylum seekers 3. Joint CRC #18/CEDAW #31 harmful practices 4. CRPD #1 equal recognition 5. CRPD #2 accessibility
Treaty body weeks	77 weeks	this figure includes 13 weeks of pre-sessional working group time
Harmonizing of mechanisms ·      Simplified reporting procedure ·      Reprisals focal point ·      Follow up on concluding observations ·      Follow up on views ·      Adoption of Addis Ababa conflict of interest guidelines	·      5 now have LOIPR procedure ·      2 have appointed a reprisals focal point ·      6 have follow up mechanism on COs, but practice varies and is very basic ·      5 have follow up mechanism on Views, but practice varies, not very transparent ·      Addis Ababa – 9 have adopted the guidelines	·      LOIPR: CCPR, CAT, CEDAW, CMW & CRPD ·      reprisals focal pt – CAT & CCPR ·      Follow up on COs: CCPR, CERD, CEDAW, CAT, CRPD and CED ·      Follow up on Views: CCPR, CAT, CERD, CRPD & CEDAW (+ CESC now has a table on pending cases posted on their website). ·      Addis Ababa: apparently all except CCPR have adopted the guidelines