Table of pending cases, Human Rights Committee

A table of pending cases has finally been posted by the U.N. Human Rights Committee. It was announced at their March 2017 session and can be found here.  These are individual complaints that have been registered since January 1, 2017.  There are no dates on the table so it is not clear how current the latest registered case is.

The cases are numbered 2925 through 2966, a total of 42 cases. The largest number of cases deal with deportations, 16.  There are also 5 cases on religious discrimination of one type or another, primarily dealing with believers of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a Christian group. There are also five cases dealing with sexual orientation.

Russia is mentioned in the most number of complaints (10), followed by Austria (5), Belarus (4), Canada (4), Azerbaijan (2), Colombia (2), Denmark (2) and one each for Australia, Finland, France, Hungary, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, and Slovakia.  One case, #2964/2017, has no country listed so far.

The Committee's backlog of cases is quite extensive. On average it will probably take 3 to 4 years for these 2017 cases to be concluded.  The Committee has recently decided that it will accept submissions from interested third parties on these registered cases, but I have not found any rules posted yet on how this new procedure will work. If interested in submitting such a brief, I would encourage you to contact directly the petitions unit for the OHCHR.

Suggestions I would make to those who are maintaining this table:

• please indicate the latest date of the table every time it is revised
• please provide links to the procedures for submitting third party briefs on any of these cases
• please indicate final outcomes whenever possible, including cases that are dismissed or discontinued without a public decision being issued
• correct item #2964/2017 in the table which at the moment has no country identified with it