Geneva Academy
1 October 2018
Our publication ‘Optimizing the UN Treaty Bodies System’ outlines a series of recommendations related to the functioning of UN treaty bodies (TBs) and provides detailed and innovative solutions for optimizing the system, including the consolidated reporting model and clustered dialogue.
‘Instead of writing separate reports to each TBs, states could do this in one document which they could discuss in clustered dialogues with the various TBs, going to one TB to the next in a door-to-door review’ underlines Felix Kirchmeier, Coordinator of the Geneva Human Rights Platform.
The Geneva Academy developed a new tool, the ‘Treaty Body Scheduler’, which allows planning, in the context of a consolidated report and clustered dialogue, the best schedules for TBs sessions.
While the duration of TBs sessions would remain approximately the same, the schedules developed by this tool would allow delegations to reduce their travels to Geneva. This type of organization would also promote greater interactions between Committees’ members as they would be in session simultaneously.
‘It is important for us to show that our recommendations can be implemented and stand up the reality check of an IT-simulation’ stresses Felix Kirchmeier. ‘All our recommendations can be implemented by TBs and states without any change to the existing legal framework’ he adds.
This new tool has already been presented to states, treaty body members, as well as to the staff of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
‘This IT programme would allow changing all the parameters regarding sessions, time and combination of committees and to adapt it to different scenarios. At the moment, as resources did not allow to develop a user interface, we cannot yet put it online’ explains Felix Kirchmeier.
ECHR
Via its DHRTTDs Directory, the Geneva Human Rights Platform provides a comprehensive list and description of such key tools and databases. But how to navigate them? Which tool should be used for what, and by whom? This interview helps us understand better the specificities of the current highlight of the directory: ECHR Knowledge Sharing Platform
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UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
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The Geneva Human Rights Platform collaborates with a series of actors to reflect on the implementation of international human rights norms at the local level and propose solutions to improve uptake of recommendations and decisions taken by Geneva-based human rights bodies at the local level.
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UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
A series of events aimed at discussing contemporary issues and challenges related to the promotion and protection of human rights in Geneva and beyond.
Publication
Publication
Geneva Academy