Geneva Academy
18 June 2019
Reports submitted by states in the context of the upcoming review of United Nations (UN) Treaty Bodies (TBs) by the UN General Assembly highlight wide support to the recommendations emanating from the Academic Platform on Treaty Body Review 2020 and presented in our publication Optimizing the UN Treaty Bodies System.
‘An analysis of the 54 states’ submissions highlights large support across all continents and regional groups to our main recommendations to improve the work of UN TBs ’ underlines Felix Kirchmeier, Coordinator of the Geneva Human Rights Platform.
‘We were very pleased to see that four states – Costa Rica, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland – explicitly welcomed and supported the analysis and proposed solutions described in our publication’ explains Felix Kirchmeier.
Besides this explicit support, key recommendations of the academic platform are present in a number of state submissions:
‘Overall, such a large endorsement of our recommendations is very encouraging as this review constitutes a historical opportunity to make the work of TBs more efficient’ underlines Domenico Zipoli, Associate Researcher at the Geneva Academy.
‘This is also very encouraging for our recent publication on TBs’ individual communication procedures, Treaty Bodies’ Individual Communication Procedures: Providing Redress and Reparation to Victims of Human Rights Violations, which outlines a series of key recommendations to improve the system’ adds Kamelia Kemileva, one of the authors of this report.
Optimizing the UN Treaty Bodies System outlines a series of detailed and innovative solutions for optimizing the UN TBs system.
This work is the outcome of a three-year consultative process coordinated by the Geneva Academy – The Academic Platform on Treaty Body Review 2020 – to collect academic inputs and ideas for the 2020 review via the creation of an academic network of independent researchers, a call for papers, a series of regional consultations, annual and expert conferences, as well as ongoing interactions with key stakeholders: states, treaty bodies, national human rights institutions, civil society organizations and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other parts of the UN.
Domenico Zipoli
The report of the second focused review pilot – conducted in St. George’s, Grenada, by our Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) with the Commonwealth Secretariat – shows the benefits that this exercise brings to both the work of UN treaty bodies and the implementation of human rights in countries.
Geneva Academy
Our team at the 2022 Mandela Moot Court participated in an open practice at Villa Moynier in preparation for the final rounds that will take place in Geneva from 18 to 21 July.
UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.
Francisco Proner / Farpa/ CIDH
This short course, which can be followed in Geneva or online, aims at presenting the institutions and procedures in charge of the implementation of international human rights law.
Olivier Chamard/Geneva Academy
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NYU Stern BH
This project aims at supporting the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights' project for the 10th anniversary of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.