Thursday, October 24, 2019
Monitoring Human Rights Essay
Human rights have had a major impact on international human life and constitute a very important test for national institutions. Moreover, they constitute a standard for reforming society and evaluating the policies and practices of international economic and political platforms[1]. The Human Rights Committee closely monitors the proper implementation of the International Covenant by state parties. Therefore all the state parties are under an obligation to submit periodic reports to the Committee. These reports should contain the details of the implementation of human rights in their respective states. In the first instance, these states are required to submit their report within one year after having ratified the Covenant. These states are also required to submit these reports whenever the Committee insists upon their submission. Upon receipt of these reports, the Committee reviews them and suggests its recommendations to the states. These recommendations are generally in the form of concluding observations. In order to ratify international human rights treaties, there is a need for state parties to work in compliance with international monitoring frameworks. These frameworks require the provision of periodic reports on the status of implementation of the requirement of these treaties[2]. The act of issuing general observations by a treaty body depends on the process of reviewing the reports submitted by state parties. Observations are the collective assessment of these reports and the governments are enabled to determine the steps to be undertaken by them in order to promote and effectively implement human rights. The importance of the dialogue is to receive advice on the measures to be adopted in order to implement treaty provisions in a better fashion. Hence the state parties are required to implement the concluding observations made by the treaty bodies and address these observations in their subsequent reports[3]. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights or OHCHR plays an important role in promoting efforts to obtain global ratification by undertaking campaigns for ratification. This initiative would act as a catalyst and stimulate state governments, civilians, intergovernmental organizations and other organizations. The OHCHR promotes the integration of targets for ratification of the international treaties on human rights. It is an instrument that has been designed by the Common Country Assessments and UN Development Assistance Frameworks[4]. The OHCHR is a technical cooperation device, which is aimed at assisting state parties in implementing and promoting human rights. Technical assistance programs are provided upon requests from governments and should be utilized by them. There should be a transparent process with the consultation of civil society to be adopted with regard to nominating state representatives to the treaty. This could further enhance the effectiveness in finding a suitable candidate for the purpose. State parties have to advertise vacancies in the treaty bodies in the national press and other media. This would improve the chances of obtaining better candidates and also facilitates assessment of the candidate’s expertise. Subsequent to the nomination, the state governments should exhibit the list of applicants to the public at large[5]. Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women requires the state parties to submit a report on the legislative, judicial and administrative measures that a state had to initiate in order to promote the provisions of the Convention. It also stipulates that the state has to furnish the progress report with regard to the status of human rights, within one year after entering the Convention. Subsequently, this report had to be submitted every four years and whenever the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women requires it[6].            In this respect and in order to fulfill the obligations laid down by Article 18, the Committee suggested that the state parties should invariably follow the general guidelines with regard to the form, content and date of reports. These guidelines were designed in order to assist state parties to submit the reports in a uniform manner so that the state parties and the Committee would be in a position to have knowledge about the implementation of those provisions[7]. Under Article 14 of the Convention on all Forms of Racial Discrimination a state can recognize the competence of the committee to receive and consider representations from its citizens who allege violation of rights granted by the convention. The state is required to change its laws if the committee discovers a violation of the convention. Moreover, the state parties have to furnish details of the convention measures adopted by them as a report, once in two years and the committee, in turn, reports to the UN General Assembly once a year in this regard.[8] The Human Rights Committee or the HRC was formed in order to monitor state compliance with the ICCPR. Article 40(3) of the HRC, stipulates that the HRC’s members have to serve in their personal capacity. Moreover, Article 38 states that newly elected members should work in an impartial and conscientious manner[9]. The ICCPR consists of eighteen experts in human rights, who have a good moral conduct. The monitoring measures of the ICCPR are first, state parties are required to submit periodic reports to the HRC that must describe their efforts to promote the Covenant provided human rights and the developments in the provision of these rights. On receiving this report, the HRC would evaluate the facts and make the necessary observations. Second, state parties have to accept the HRC’s authority to entertain complaints from other state parties regarding non – compliances with ICCPR obligations[10]. General Comments, which are adopted by the HRC, address articles or issues of the ICCPR and indicate the ability of the HRC to examine worldwide reports in respect of the diversified political, legal and social systems[11]. Article 41 of the Covenant authorizes the Committee to hear complaints among the states and the First Optional Protocol enables the latter to entertain complaints from individuals in respect of violations of rights guaranteed by the Covenant by the State Parties. There would be three sessions per year of the Committee and it has to publish its interpretation of the Covenant of human rights provisions. Moreover, the Committee’s power covers the Second Optional Protocol, which deals with the elimination of the death penalty[12]. The report E/CN.4/1997/74 of the United Nations, which is based on previous reports that had been, submitted to World Conference on Human Rights, concerns the ratification of some of the treaties. This report assumes that the existing supervisory system is sound and valid. In addition, it also assumes that adequate reporting has taken place. Moreover, it assumes that the progress in the quality of reporting procedures is by its very nature very slow. Further, this report is based on the premise that the extant system is not viable and that the overall objectives cannot be achieved in the absence of drastic remedial measures being adopted[13]. This report makes several assumptions. Some of these assumptions are that the treaty’s supervisory system are sound and remain legitimate; despite difficulties, considerable progress has been registered by the treaty bodies; progress has to be based on an effective monitoring system, which beneficially modifies the relevant procedures and institutions and the extant system is untenable and the achievement of the various objectives requires significant changes to the reporting system[14]. International efforts to promote human rights require the universal ratification of the essential treaties. The rate of ratification of these treaties has shown a remarkable increase after the Vienna Conference. The reasons responsible for the increase in the number of such ratifications are described in the sequel. The first reason is that several new states succeeded to these treaties. The second reason is that the Fourth World Conference on Women resulted in the ratification of the CEDAW by a large number of states. The third factor is that of the unimaginable success that was attendant upon the efforts to enhance the number of countries that were in favour of ratifying the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Despite the success of this convention on the rights of the child, it has come to light that there is a need to take further steps against countries that have failed to ratify this convention[15]. In addition, these treaty bodies are available only in two languages and translations take quite a bit of time for completion. Some of these treaty bodies have laid a great emphasis on upon what have been termed as special reports[16]. It was contended by Tomuschat that the submission of reports pertaining to the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid was inadequate to the extent that the whole system could be deemed to be a failure[17]. Some of the recommendations of this report are that there should be consultations with the major international organizations in respect of efforts to promote ratification. In addition, special advisers should be appointed in order to ratify and report. Moreover, there should be an adoption of special measures in order to streamline the reporting system for the less populated nations[18]. Article 28 of the ICCPR requires the Human Rights Committee to consist of eighteen members. These members should possess and exemplary moral character and should be bestowed with acclaimed expertise in the human rights[19]. Article 40 of the ICCPR requires the States Parties to inform the Secretary General of the UN regarding the measures adopted by them in respect of this Covenant[20]. In a meeting conducted in Geneva on the 27th and 28th of July 1996, the committee discussed the possibility modifications to its reporting procedures. The decisions arrived at in this meeting were transformed into an official document at the sixtieth session of this committee. In this meeting discussions were conducted regarding the format and focus of periodic reports, the methodology to be adopted by the committee in dealing with state reports, the standards that had to be established in respect of state reports and the procedure to be adopted in the case of delinquent reports[21]. Although the working of the committee can be influenced by the work of the more specialized treaty bodies it is empowered only to interpret and apply the ICCPR. The standards that are applicable to the protection of human rights differ from one treaty provision to another and the committee may choose the most appropriate of such standards in any particular situation. Moreover, the committee should, wherever and to the extent possible, avoid a conflict with the provisions of other treaty bodies[22]. During the 1626th and 1627th meetings the Committee thoroughly examined the fourth periodic report submitted by Iraq[23] on 27th October 1997 and on 5th November 1997 in the 1640th meeting, and the Committee declared its observations. It condemned the apathy of the state in dealing with the implementation of domestic laws and the provisions of the Covenant. The Iraqi delegation interacted with the Committee and submitted its answers to the Committee, furthermore this delegation made detailed clarifications regarding the prevailing conditions in the state[24].            In its examination, the Committee acknowledged that Iraq’s war with Iran and the aftermath of its invasion of Kuwait had resulted in a substantial destruction of the nation’s infrastructure. However, the Committee was of the view that despite these difficulties, the government of Iraq had been responsible for the implementation of the provisions under the Covenant and that it could not evade its responsibility in this regard[25].            The Committee further suggested that reasonable steps should be taken in order to ensure equal rights for people of all religious groups, in addition to the ethnic minorities. Further, the government of Iraq was directed to furnish this information in its next periodic report and to give sufficient details regarding the implementation of Articles 26 and 27 of the Covenant[26].            The Committee further directed that there should be submission of reports with regard to the difficulties encountered by non – governmental organizations in respect of establishment and operability. The Committee acknowledges that the necessary initiatives should be undertaken immediately so as to facilitate the establishment and smooth operation of independent non – governmental organizations working in the area of human rights[27].            The Committee furnished these guidelines to the government of Iraq along with reports submitted by other state parties to be referred to as a model. Moreover, it requested the government of Iraq to submit in its next periodic report full particulars of the steps taken by it in this regard[28].            During its 1628th and 1629th meetings held on the 28th of October 1997, and during its 1642nd meeting held on the 5th of November 1997, the Committee reviewed the second periodic report of Sudan[29]. The reports submitted by Sudan were helpful in assessing the prevailing conditions in the state. The Committee recognized the fact that the implementation of the Covenant was hindered due to the armed conflicts in the southern regions of Sudan. These differences were causing difficulties in the implementation of the Covenant and the Committee advised the government of Sudan to include the provisions of periodic reports of the other state parties in its next periodic report[30].            In the 1675th to 1677th meetings, the Committee reviewed the initial report of Israel[31]. The Committee recognized the fact that the reasons for non implementation of the Covenant could be attributed to the frequent attacks on the population, the other problems that related to its occupation of territory and its war with bordering states. Nevertheless, the Committee instructed the government of Israel that according to Article 4 of the Covenant, the state should not fail to provide fundamental rights even under such emergency conditions[32].            The Committee was satisfied with the steps initiated by Israel like establishing several ministries that dealt with the status of women. It was also satisfied with the functions of the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of the Status of Women. Another measure that the government had taken was the establishment of a national level authority on the advancement of women in the state by bestowing several responsibilities on it. The government’s amendment of the Equal Employment Opportunities Law made employers liable in sexual harassment cases and the government also enacted legislation to bring about the Equal Pay (Male and Female Employees) Law[33].            The Committee reviewed the second periodic report of Algeria[34] in its 1681st to 1684th sessions and complimented the state party for having resolved some of the issues pointed out in the Committee’s concluding observations,[35]which had been made in the initial report on Algeria in 1992. The factors that had contributed to the inadequate implementation of the Covenant were the extensive and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, which resulted in great loss of human life and the violent activities in the state. These issues made it imperative to maintain law and order in the state in order to protect fundamental rights in Algeria[36]. As such the states have been provided with insufficient support in putting into practice their duty to ensure human rights and in modifying their domestic laws, policies and practices in order to be more effective in establishing human rights. There is little guidance in respect of the manner in which the laws are to be sustained and construed by the states with the result that states have to face an even greater problem while carrying out their human rights obligations[37]. Bibliography Tomuschat, â€Å"Human Rights, States Reports†, in R. Wolfrum and C. Philip (eds.), United Nations: Law, Policies and Practice (Munich, Beck and Dordrecht, Martinus Nijhoff, 1995), vol. 1, p. 631. Charles R. Beitz. Human Rights as a Common Concern, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 95, No. 2. (Jun., 2001), pp. 269-282. 26 August 2007. Christian Tomuschat, Human Rights: Between Idealism and Realism. (2003). Oxford University Press. P. 140. CCPR/C/133. December 22nd, 1997. Report on the informal meeting on procedures. ICCPR. United Nations. CCPR/C/103/Add.2 CCPR/C/75/Add.2 CCPR/C/81/Add.13 CCPR/C/101/Add.1 CCPR/C/79/Add.1 Document E/CN/4/1997/74, dated March 27, 1996. United Nations Economic and Social Council. Effective Functioning of Bodies Established Pursuant to United Nations Human Rights Instruments. Final Report on Enhancing the Long Term Effectiveness of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty System. E/CN. 4/ 1997/74. March 27, 1997. Commission on Human Rights, Fifty – third Session. Human Rights Committee. Monitoring civil and political rights. Retrieved 2 September 2007. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, G.A. res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force 23, 1976. Michael Banton, The Future of UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring. Chapter 3, Decision – Taking in the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Philip Alston and James Crawford (Eds). 2000. Cambridge University Press. P. 55. Monitoring State Obligations on International Human Rights: United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies/Committees. 26 August 2007 Report of the Human Rights Committee. Volume I. General Assembly Official Records †¢ Fifty-third Session Supplement No. 40 (A/53/40). Retrieved September 2, 2007 Thynne, Kelisiana. ANZSIL CONFERENCE 2007 REFORM OF UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS: CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS Enhancing the rule of law in international human rights treaty bodies. United Nations Proposals to Strengthen the Human Rights Treaty Bodies
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