Glossary of terms

Last revised: 5 March 2014

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Note: there is also a glossary of terms relating to the human rights treaties at the OHCHR website,  http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/TBGlossary.aspx, which includes some of the terms on this list as well as some terms I have decided not to include.  UNICEF has also issued a glossary of key terms to the CRC at http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Definitions.pdf

·      Accession – same as ratification, except the country did not “sign” the treaty and later ratify it; instead they just jumped directly to the ratification step

·      Addis Ababa Guidelines – the guidelines adopted by the Chairpersons of the 10 treaty bodies in 2012, for conflict of interest and impartiality issues

·      Advisory Visits on NPMs – a country visit by the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) where it consults with the country on the national preventive mechanism (NPM) that the country is setting up to comply with the Optional Protocol of the Convention Against Torture.

·      CAT – the Committee Against Torture, 10 members, which is responsible for monitoring implementation under the Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

·      CATOP – one of the acronyms used to refer to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture, which established a preventive mechanism of visits and monitoring in places of detention. The more familiar acronym is OPCAT but CATOP is used in the formal documentation issued by the monitoring body, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT)

·      CCPR – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which is monitored by the Human Rights Committee

·      CED – this reference can either refer to the Convention against Enforced Disappearances or the Committee which monitors compliance under it

·      CEDAW – this reference can either refer to the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, or the Committee which monitors compliance under it

·      CERD – this reference can either refer to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, or the Committee which monitors compliance under it

·      CESC – this reference can refer either to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or the Committee which monitors compliance under it

·      CMW – the Committee on Migrant Workers, which monitors compliance under the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families

·      CO – the Concluding Observations that most of the treaty bodies issue after reviewing a state report; sometimes also called Concluding Recommendations

·      Common core document – the report that a state may choose to submit which covers the material that is common to all of the reports. This permits them to focus on the treaty specific material when they submit a periodic report to the treaty body. Typical subjects covered in a common core document are descriptions of their political and judicial systems, demographic statistics, and the main ministries or agencies in their government responsible for carrying out human rights policies.

·      Country rapporteur – the Committee member who has been appointed to take the lead in reviewing a particular state report

·      Country task force – the Human Rights Committee appoints a group of members (3-4 members) to take the lead in reviewing a particular state report, rather than the use of a country rapporteur

·      CRC – this can refer either to the Convention on the Rights of the Child or the Committee which monitors compliance under it

·      CRPD – this reference can refer either to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or the Committee which monitors compliance under it

·      Derogation – the doctrine which permits some treaty provisions to be suspended during times of armed conflict or emergency. For example, the right to a speedy trial can be suspended during an emergency situation, as long as certain formalities are observed.

·      Entry into force – can refer to the date the treaty entered into force or the date when a particular country’s membership came into effect

·      EWUA – early warning urgent/action procedure of CERD

·      Follow up – most Committees now have a follow up procedure where recommendations and individual complaint decisions are followed up with the country concerned, to make sure that the Committee’s recommendations have been implemented. These Committees usually designate 2 or 3 specific recommendations that must be implemented in 12 months or 24 months; then it appoints a follow up rapporteur to review the evidence of follow up and discuss the results with the country involved.

·      Follow up Visit Report (SPT) – this is a type of country visit that the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture sometimes schedules, to follow up on a the results of a previous visit and report

·      GC or GR – General Comment or General Recommendation – these are the statements adopted by each Committee from time to time, providing interpretive guidance on the meaning of certain articles in their treaty

·      Inadmissible – this is one of three outcomes that is possible after a Committee reviews an individual complaint that has been submitted to it; the other two outcomes would be 1) a decision on the merits that the country concerned has committed a human rights violation and 2) a decision on the merits that there is no evidence of a human rights violation. The decision that a complaint is inadmissible is basically a conclusion that it doesn’t state enough facts to determine whether a violation has been committed or not, or that it fails to meet some other procedural requirement for a valid complaint (for example, failure to exhaust all available domestic remedies before submitting the complaint to the Committee)

·      Initial or periodic report – an initial report is the first report that a state submits under a treaty after ratification; a periodic report is the term used to describe all subsequent reports submitted under the treaty

·      Inquiry – a procedure available in some treaties whereby a pattern or practice against a group of victims is claimed to have occurred; for example, CEDAW conducted an inquiry and issued a final report in the case of large numbers of women who were being abducted, raped, or disappeared in the Chihuahua district of Mexico, with little or no law enforcement investigation or prosecutions

·      Jurisprudence – the term sometimes used to refer to the final decisions a Committee has made in the case of individual complaints; the term is sometimes also used to refer to the broader subset of all decisions of a Committee, including recommendations on state reports and general comments

·      List of themes – the term used in CERD for the list of issues

·      LOI – list of issues, sent to the government 6 to 9 months before the government is scheduled for a state party report review before the Committee

·      LOIPR – a list of issues prior to reporting; this is the special practice adopted by some Committees, to permit a government to elect a simplified reporting alternative to the normal state report; in this case the Committee issues the list of issues first, and then the government writes its report in a form that responds to each of the issues on the LOIPR

·      Meeting of states parties – meetings held by the countries that have ratified a particular treaty; usually the states parties meeting takes place every other year, to elect new members to the Committee under that treaty

·      NHRI – national human rights institution

·      Non-derogable – this term refers to certain fundamental rights and articles under treaties which can not be suspended, even in times of war or emergency.  For example, the right to life is non derogable and can never be withdrawn or unavailable during times of emergency.

·      Non-reporting – occasionally a treaty body will decide to review the situation in a particular country even though the state has not submitted a report; this is called, review in the absence of a report; this usually happens when the state report is very overdue; often the scheduling of a review in the absence of a report prompts the state to finally submit its report.

·      NPM – national preventive mechanism; this refers to the mechanism a country must set up within 2 years after ratifying the OPCAT, in order to monitor places of detention in its country and ensure that conditions of secrecy or concealment do not exist, since those are key ingredients in letting illegal torture and cruel, inhuman conditions exist

·      NPM advisory visit – this refers to the type of country visit that the SPT will make to a country after its national preventive mechanism is being set up

·      OHCHR – Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights

·      OPAC – the optional protocol on armed conflict (child soldiers) to the Convention on the Rights of the Child

·      OPCAT – the optional protocol to the Convention Against Torture, which addresses the prevention of torture

·      OPSC – the optional protocol on the sale of children (pornography, trafficking) to the Convention on the Rights of the Child

·      Optional Protocol – an additional text or amendment to a treaty that applies only to those countries that have separately ratified it

·      Periodic report – see initial report

·      Petitions – one of the terms used to describe the individual complaints that can be submitted to some Committees

·      Pre-sessional WG – a group of the Committee’s members who have been asked to meet together before a regular session is held, in order to prepare the work to be reviewed and decided during the session

·      Quarterly newsletters on the treaty bodies – these newsletters are issued semi-regularly on a quarterly basis by the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, updating the information on the human rights treaty bodies.  http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/Newsletter.aspx

·      Ratification or accession – the act of formally accepting the terms of a treaty and agreeing to be legally bound by it

·      Reprisal letter – a procedure observed by some Committees to issue a letter to a government when the Committee becomes aware of harm or threats against human rights advocates who testified to the Committee about the human rights conditions in that country; the letter demands that the government take all necessary steps to prevent the reprisals and to protect the individuals concerned from harm or persecution

·      Reservations – exceptions to the ratification of a treaty that a government can submit at the time of ratification; for example, “Australia makes the reservation that the provision of compensation for miscarriage of justice in the circumstances contemplated in paragraph 6 of article 14 may be administrative procedures rather than pursuant to specific legal provision.” [reservation to the CCPR]

·      Shadow report – a report prepared by NGOs to refute the statements made in a country’s state report

·      Simplified reporting procedure – the procedure permitted under the optional LOIPR procedure

·      SPT – the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture, which is responsible for monitoring compliance under the OPCAT

·      Treaty body – a committee elected under each treaty which is responsible for monitoring compliance

·      Treaty bodies database – the database maintained by the OHCHR where you can find copies of most treaty body documents and decisions. http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch.aspx?Lang=en

·      UN Fact Sheets – a series of reference guides issued by the OHCHR and updated from time to time. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/PublicationsResources/Pages/FactSheets.aspx

For purposes of the treaty body system, the most relevant Factsheets presently are

o   No. 30 Rev.1 The United Nations Human Rights Treaty System

o   No. 24 Rev.1 The International Convention on Migrant Workers and its Committee

o   No. 15 Rev.1 Civil and Political Rights: The Human Rights Committee

o   No. 7 Rev. 2 Individual Complaint Procedures under the United Nations Human Rights Treaties

·      Universal Human Rights index – a search engine maintained by the OHCHR of the text of recommendations for all human rights mechanisms, for the treaty bodies, the special rapporteurs and UPR.  http://uhri.ohchr.org/en

·      Views – the formal term used for the final decision by a Committee on an individual complaint.

·      Visit Report (SPT) – a country visit by the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture where places of detention are visited, government officials interviewed, members of civil society are interviewed, and the SPT issues a report of recommendations. This is the main type of country visit that the SPT conducts. The other types of visits are NPM visits and follow up visits.