Background

During the autumn of 2009, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in her statements to the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, recalled that “... The overall success of the human rights protection system, marked by the increase in the number of human rights instruments and corresponding monitoring bodies, together with greater compliance by States parties with reporting obligations, pose greater demands on the treaty bodies and on my Office. While this success is most welcome and encouraging, [the High Commissioner called on] States parties to human rights treaties and other stakeholders to initiate a process of reflection on how to streamline and strengthen the treaty body system…”

In opening her interactive dialogue with the Human Rights Council on 3 March 2011, and on many occasions thereafter, the High Commissioner noted that the treaty body system is now almost double the size it was in 2004 but that the growth of its funding resources has regrettably not kept apace. The High Commissioner also noted that in order to strengthen the system, she had requested all stakeholders to rethink its future, and she was pleased to inform that the carefully nurtured process of discussion was going forward. She further highlighted that “…we all need to acknowledge that, in and of themselves, streamlining and strengthening cannot displace the need to find and allocate additional resources to match the growth of the system.”

The High Commissioner’s call for strengthening the treaty body system has been open to all relevant stakeholders, including treaty body members, National Human Rights Institutions, non-governmental organizations, academics and States parties who can contribute to this process both through formal and informal channels.

In response to the High Commissioner's call, 19 consultations by stakeholders have taken place between 2010 and 2012. Written submissions have also been received.

The High Commissioner will publish a report compiling the various proposals made during the consultation process in June 2012.

Process

The consultation process is open, multi-channeled and flexible and is composed of the following tracks:

• Formal meetings, including the annual inter-committee meetings of human rights treaty bodies and meetings of chairpersons
  
  
• Consultations within the treaty bodies , including the consultations in Avenières and Bossey for different treaty bodies while in session in Geneva (five Saturday retreats) and an Expert Meeting on Petitions for treaty body members (October 2011)
  
  
• Informal meetings and consultations
  • Dublin Statement on the Strengthening of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System (November 2009)
    
  • Marrakesh Statement (June 2010)
    
  • Poznan Statement (October 2010) 
    
  • Seoul Statement on Strengthening the UN Human Rights Treaty Body System (April 2011)
    
  • Report of the First Technical Consultation with States parties in Sion (May 2011)
    
  • Pretoria Statement (June 2011)
    
  • Report of the Seminar on Implementation of Concluding Observations in Bristol (September 2011)
    
  • Report of the Lucerne Academic Consultation (October 2011)
  • Dublin II Outcome Document (November 2011)
    
  • Report of the Maastricht Seminar on the UPR and treaty bodies (November 2011)
    
  • Report of the consultation with UN entities and specialized agencies (November 2011)
  • Report of the Second Consultation with States parties (Geneva, February 2012)
  • Report of the Third Consultation with States parties (New York, April 2012)
    
    
• Stakeholders’ written submissions to the High Commissioner's call
• Response by non-governmental organizations to the Dublin Statement (November 2010)
• NGO statement on strengthening the treaty body individual communications procedures
• Issues for the inter-governmental process on strengthening the effective functioning of the human rights treaty body system - a joint NGO contribution (April 2012)
  
  
• Stakeholders' individual written submissions in the context of the treaty body strengthening process
• Submissions by States parties
• Submissions by treaty bodies
• Submissions by treaty body members
• Submissions by academics
• Submissions by non-governmental organizations
  
  
• Non-exhaustive list of emerging proposals identified so far in the context of the treaty body strengthening process
• High Commissioner's report compiling the various proposals