What Treaty Bodies should do next -- Call for Supplemental Coronavirus Reports from State Parties

Treaty Bodies -- next steps 

Several treaty bodies have already issued Covid-19 statements. It makes sense that government responses to the coronavirus pandemic should now be taken up by the human rights treaty body system. The state reporting function of the treaty bodies is especially well suited for this task. 

Here’s one suggestion to begin the process: State parties that have reports coming up soon for review in treaty body sessions should be asked to submit beforehand a short supplement to their current report, explaining how they responded to the coronavirus crisis, including how they used a human rights approach in the planning, decisions and implementation. And including any post-crisis evaluation that has gotten underway. 

This approach uses the treaty body system at its best — evaluating a human rights problem by a committee of independent experts, in a structured, scheduled framework, asking states to confirm and explain their compliance to a binding international instrument already ratified. Other UN human rights mechanisms may perhaps be able to respond more quickly to urgent crises than the treaty body system can with its periodic and structured meeting schedule, but treaty bodies can focus on follow up, lessons learned and state accountability in ways that other mechanisms do not. Those treaty body functions should now be put into play.

The supplemental report on Covid-19 can be short, for example perhaps no more than 5 pages.  NGOs should also be encouraged to submit shadow reports. The examination of each report should be tailored to the mandate of rights covered by the particular treaty involved. Covid-19 has seemingly touched all rights covered by the human rights treaties, so all treaty bodies should be involved. 

Treaty bodies should act soon to notify states of this supplemental reporting requirement. The value of doing so includes — giving states and NGOs as much time as possible to prepare such reports, putting states on notice that a human rights evaluation of their pandemic programs is coming, and adapting the programs and activities of the treaty body system to this major new global concern.

I urge treaty bodies to issue announcements on coronavirus supplemental reports as soon as possible, to make ready for the resumption of treaty body sessions.

[this article is reprinted from e-Newsletter of Geneva for Human Rights of April 19 2020, https://gdh-ghr.org/blog/2020/04/editorial-of-ghrs-newsletter-2020-04-19/]

UN General Assembly documents on the treaty body system

Here is a brief listing of documents filed so far with the fall session (73rd session) of the UN General Assembly relating to the treaty body system. This is a working list, somewhat speculative on my part as to which documents are relevant. Most of these are filed with the Third Committee. Copies can be downloaded at this link except for the Global Compacts, which will eventually be available at the conference link I have provided in the last entry in this table.

Doc.	Report
A/73/018	CERD annual report
A/73/036	OHCHR [High Commissioner’s] annual report [One page pointer to full report at A/HRC/37/3]
A/73/038	CEDAW annual report
A/73/040	CCPR [Human Rights Committee] annual report
A/73/041	CRC annual report
A/73/044	CAT annual report
A/73/048	CMW annual report
A/73/055	CRPD annual report
A/73/056	CED annual report
A/73/061	Implementing objectives of the Intl Year of the Family
A/73/123	Universal jurisdiction
A/73/140	Implementation of human rights instruments/TB chairs report
A/73/141	Call for a new agenda item on treaty framework
A/73/153	Combatting intolerance
A/73/163	Working Group on TNCs and other Business Enterprises
A/73/165	Rights of peasants – Declaration of [One pager pointing to A/HRC/39/67 report of working group]
A/73/168	SPT annual report
A/73/178	Special rapporteur on migrants
A/73/213	Follow up to Intl Yr of Older Persons
A/73/229	Protection in disasters
A/73/264	Slavery victims voluntary trust fund
A/73/272	Status of the CRC
A/73/281	Torture victims voluntary fund
A/73/282	Rept on the special fund for OPCAT [One page ref to A/HRC/37/19]
A/73/294	Violence against women & girls
A/73/303	Working Group on use of mercenaries
A/73/309	Report of the Secretary General on the status of the treaty body system – 2nd biennial report [Plus 40 page supplement of annexes that are not published with the report but are available at OHCHR website]
E/2018/22	CESC annual report
xx	Global Compacts on migrants and refugees [to be finalized in December in Morocco. There is now a website on the conference at http://www.un.org/en/conf/migration/]

Welcome High Commissioner!

Welcome UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. We look forward to great things from you! 

Treaty body elections; gender balance

Six treaty bodies are scheduled to elect half of their members during this year. To date five elections have taken place. The 6th (SPT) won't occur until October. This seems like an appropriate time to take a snapshot of where we are.  Gender balance has improved slightly overall, but more importantly it has become more balanced on two of the Committees who were most out of balance (CRPD & CEDAW).

CESC

Members are elected by ECOSOC. Elections were initially held in April when 7 candidates were elected; 2 slots were not filled at that time (1 from Asia, 1 from Latin America). A second round of elections are to be held in July 26-27, to fill these remaining spots.

Elected so far:

Mr. Asraf Ally CAUNHYE (Mauritius) (new member)

Mr. Peters Sunday Omologbe EMUZE (Nigeria) (new member)

Ms. Heisoo SHIN (Republic of Korea) (re-elected)

Mr. Olivier DE SCHUTTER (Belgium) (re-elected)

Mr. Renato ZERBINI RIBEIRO LEÃO (Brazil) (re-elected)

Mr. Rodrigo UPRIMNY YEPES (Colombia) (re-elected)

Mr. Aslan Khuselnovich ABASHIDZE (Russian Federation) (re-elected)

Notes:

·      1 woman, 6 men, replacing 2 women & 7 men, with 2 spots still open

·      Total committee composition right now is 4 women, 12 men, with two spots still to be filled

·      2 new members; 5 re-elected

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·      Terms for these members begin 1/1/2019

CEDAW

On June 7, 2018 elections were held to replace 12 members of CEDAW.  Results were as follows:

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Name of candidate	Nationality
Ms. Gladys ACOSTA VARGAS	Peru               RE-ELECTED
Ms. Hiroko AKIZUKI	Japan             NEW MEMBER
Ms. Tamader AL-RAMMAH	Saudi Arabia.      NEW MEMBER
Ms. Louiza CHALAL	Algeria              RE-ELECTED
Ms. Naéla GABR	Egypt               RE-ELECTED
Ms. Lia NADARAIA	Georgia           RE-ELECTED
Ms. Aruna Devi NARAIN	Mauritius        RE-ELECTED
Ms. Ana PELAEZ NARVAEZ	Spain               NEW MEMBER
Ms. Rhoda REDDOCK	Trinidad and Tobago.    NEW MEMBER
Mr. Elgun SAFAROV	Azerbaijan.     NEW MEMBER
Ms. Genoveva TISHEVA	Bulgaria            NEW MEMBER
Ms. Franceline TOE BOUDA	Burkina Faso.     NEW MEMBER

      *5 new members were elected; 7 were re-elected
*One more man has been elected to the Committee this time (Mr. Elgun Safarov, of Azerbaijan), so the gender balance is now 2 men, 21 women. This is the first time in recent memory that there have been more than one man serving on the Committee at the same time.
*New members will begin serving 1/1/2019

CRPD

Elections were held on June 12, 2018.

Final elected slate:

·      Ms. Mara Cristina GABRILLI (Brazil) NEW MEMBER

·      Ms. Amalia Eva GAMIO RÍOS (Mexico) NEW MEMBER

·      Ms. Rosemary KAYESS (Australia) NEW MEMBER

·      Ms. Miyeon KIM (Republic of Korea) NEW MEMBER

·      Ms. Gertrude OFORIWA FEFOAME (Ghana) NEW MEMBER

·      Mr. Jonas RUSKUS (Lithuania) RE-ELECTED

·      Mr. Markus SCHEFER (Switzerland) NEW MEMBER

·      Mr. Danlami UMARU BASHARU (Nigeria). RE-ELECTED

·      Ms. Risnawati UTAMI (Indonesia) NEW MEMBER

Gender balance is now 6 women, 12 men (formerly 1 woman, 17 men)

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Geographic balance is also improved – the deficiency of experts from the Latin American & Caribbean region is rectified. There are now 3 members from this region on the Committee (formerly only one member came from this region)

Key developments to note:

a.     Improved representation of women

b.     Improved geographic balance

c.     Entire conference was webcast, two full days of activities and events

d.     Focus of many interventions was on implementation

e.     Key cross cutting theme – data collection – “Promoting high-quality disability statistics and disaggregation of data by disability status for the full realization of the rights of persons with disabilities”

f.      Press conference held on day 1 re SDGs

g.     176 of 177 state parties participated in the elections

h.     Several side events

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i.       Many states shared their experiences in implementing the Convention; raising awareness; model and pilot projects; best practices

CCPR

Elections were held June 14, 2018.

9 members were elected:

* Mr. Yadh BEN ACHOUR (Tunisia).RE-ELECTED

* Mr. Christopher BULKAN (Guyana) NEW MEMBER

* Mr. Shuichi FURUYA (Japan) NEW MEMBER

* Mr. Duncan LAKI MUHUMUZA (Uganda) RE-ELECTED

* Ms. Photini PAZARTZIS (Greece) RE-ELECTED

* Mr. Hernán QUEZADA CABRERA (Chile) NEW MEMBER

* Ms. Vasilka SANCIN (Slovenia) NEW MEMBER

* Ms. Hélène TIGROUDJA (France) NEW MEMBER

* Mr. Gentian ZYBERI (Albania). NEW MEMBER

Summary:

* The newly elected members included 3 women and 6 men. The Committee now has 6 women and 10 men. Two vacancies are to be filled by appointment.

* 3 re-elected; 6 are new members

* The terms of these new members will begin 1/1/2019 and extend 4 years, to 12/31/2022.

* Russia, USA candidates were not elected

* Ms. Anja Seibert-Fohr (Germany) resigned effective 3/1/2018. Her term was set to expire 12/31/2020. Presumably the German government will appoint a replacement.

*Mr. Yuji Iwasawa (Japan), Chair of this Committee, was elected to the International Court of Justice in June. He will leave his post in this Committee and be replaced by appointment.  One of the vice chairs will replace him as chair.

* The proceedings were not webcast. First results came out unofficially on Twitter.

* JBI tweet: In a dramatic election to #HumanRights Committee, which monitors CivilPoliticsl Covenant, #US candidate defeated in runoff 2nd round. First time US has lost such an election to #UN treaty body. 17 candidates for 9 slots. 8 elected 1st round. #Chile defeats US 101-63 in 2nd round

* 164 total ballots cast, of a possible 171 state parties

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CRC

On June 29, 2018  nine members were elected to the Committee on the Rights of the Child. 

·      Ms. Suzanne AHO-ASSOUMA (Togo) (re-elected)

·      Ms. Hynd AYOUBI IDRISSI (Morocco) (re-elected)

·      Mr. Bragi GUDBRANDSSON (Iceland) (new member)

·      Mr. Philip D. JAFFE (Switzerland) (new member)

·      Mr. Gehad MADI (Egypt) (re-elected)

·      Mrs. Faith MARSHALL-HARRIS (Barbados) (new member)

·      Mr. Clarence NELSON (Samoa) (re-elected)

·      Mr. José Angel RODRÍGUEZ REYES (Venezuela) (re-elected)

·      Ms. Aïssatou Alassane Moulaye SIDIKOU (Niger) (new member)

Notes:

·      4 new members; 5 re-elected

·      5 women; 4 men.

·      The Committee composition as a whole is now 10 women & 8 men (formerly 9 women & 9 men)

·      New members begin their terms on March 1, 2019

·      Note that Niger has an expert elected on the Committee for the 1^st time; it is noteworthy that they have submitted reports in 2018 to two treaty bodies where the report had been overdue, respectively, 18 and 22 years (CAT & CCPR)

   Gender balance

Gender balance has improved overall, including in two of the Committees most in need of better balance (CRPD and CEDAW). 

Before the elections: As of October 2017 the composition was as follows:

Treaty body	women	percent	comment	next election
CRPD	1 of 18	6%	under balanced	June 2018
CMW	3 of 14	21%	under balanced	June 2019
CESC	5 of 18	28%	under balanced	July 2018
CED	3 of 10	30%	under balanced	June 2019
CAT	4 of 10	40%		Oct 2019
CERD	8 of 18	44%		June 2019
CCPR	8 of 18	44%		June 2018
SPT	12 of 25	48%		Oct 2018
CRC	9 of 18	50%		June 2018
CEDAW	22 of 23	96%	overbalanced	June 2018
TOTAL	75 of 172	43.6%

* Since CEDAW has an overbalance of women (96%), it brings the overall average up (to 43.6%). When you remove CEDAW from the count the system-wide average becomes 35.5%. 

Now the composition will look like this once new members begin their terms in 2019:

Treaty body	women	percent	comment	next election
CMW	3 of 14	21%	under balanced	June 2019
CESC	4 of 16*	25%	under balanced	July 2018 (2 openings)
CED	3 of 10	30%	under balanced	June 2019
CRPD	6 of 18	33%	under balanced	June 2020
CCPR	6 of 16**	37.5%	under balanced	June 2020
CAT	4 of 10	40%		Oct 2019
CERD	8 of 18	44%		June 2019
SPT	12 of 25	48%		Oct 2018
CRC	10 of 18	55%		June 2020
CEDAW	21 of 23	91%	overbalanced	June 2020
TOTAL	77 of 168	46%***

*two vacancies in CESC; to be filled in an election at ECOSOC in late July 2018

**two vacancies in CCPR at the present time; replacements to be appointed by the sponsoring countries of the members who have resigned

*** Since CEDAW has an overbalance of women (91%), it brings the overall average up (to 46%). When you remove CEDAW from the count the system-wide average becomes 40%. 

Conclusion

In addition to the above-described new members, several Committees saw several veteran members replaced, making for many new faces in upcoming sessions of the treaty bodies.  Kudos to those NGOs who were active in the elections this year including the members of TB-net who maintained a website of candidate interviews and statements.  

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