Treaty Body Members’ Platform

2021: Moving Online

In 2021, we launched a new online tool for all UN TB members, the TBMP 2.0 online platform, a community of practice tool that allows for ongoing online cooperation and communication between TB members. This online platform, exclusively accessible to TB members and the UN Committee Secretaries, provides a private space for communication within and across all Committees. Its main features include live chats, media and document libraries and the creation of forums and discussion groups as needed.

Despite the difficult situation related to the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions on in-person gatherings, the TBMP organized six meetings in 2021. Most focused on the issue of enforced disappearance due to the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

2020: A Special Year

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most meetings and exchanges took place online. In this context, the TBMP organized in a record time one of the first online meetings of the system – along with the Human Rights Institute at Columbia University Law School – that brought together UN TBs Chairpersons and focal points for the 2020 Review to discuss issues around this review, and establish the commonalities of positions of states, TBs members, NGOs and academia.

The TBMP also organized, during this period, discussions ranging from the impact of pesticides on the rights to health and life to concrete ways on how to bring corruption cases to the various TBs individual communication procedures. It also supported discussions on the work of TBs during the pandemic and how TBs can coordinate their working methods in the ongoing situation of online meetings.

2019: The Rights of Child, Corruption and the 2020 Review

In 2019, the TBMP allowed peer exchanges among UN TBs experts and other Geneva-based actors on issues like the rights of the child, corruption, the 2020 review of UN TBs, missing persons, trafficking and prostitution, as well as individual complaints.

2018: The Harmonization of UN TBs

Activities of the TBMP in 2018 included discussions on the harmonization of TBs, exchanges among peers and with external experts and other institutions on thematic issues, and briefings on the 2020 review of TBs by the UN General Assembly.

In collaboration with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), several workshops involving members of all TBs addressed key harmonization issues like the simplified reporting procedure and the handling of individual communications.

2017: Indigenous women, business and human rights and the relationship with national human rights institutions

In 2017, the TBMP enabled experts from various treaty bodies (TBs) – the Human Rights Committee (HRC), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Committee against Torture (CAT), the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families – to discuss a range of issues among themselves as well as with external experts and practitioners.

These included the rights of indigenous women, business and human rights, non-refoulment, individual complaint mechanisms and the relationship between treaty bodies and national human rights institutions.

2016: Sustainable Development Goals, the right to life and enforced disappearances, implementation and remedies, and treaty bodies’ inquiry procedures

In 2016, experts from the HRC, the CESCR, the CEDAW, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the CRC, the CAT and the CRPD discussed a range of issues among themselves as well as with external experts and practitioners.

These included human rights and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the right to life and enforced disappearances, implementation and remedies, and treaty bodies’ inquiry procedures.