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Our Academic Platform on Treaty Body Review 2020 just held its regional consultation for Asia in New-Delhi on 13-14 October 2017.
Hosted by the South Asian University and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) at the South Asian University campus, the New Delhi meeting brought in specialists from the region to share their views on the future of UN treaty bodies.
Participants discussed an extensive range of reform proposals. They reached consensus on several issues, including the need for a joint consolidation of the system itself (harmonization of calendars, rules of procedure and working methods, joint General Comments, state report examinations and follow-up) and in relation to its stakeholders (links with national human rights institutions and civil society).
‘Participants also called for a reform of the election of treaty body’s members and the incorporation of the SDGs and Agenda 2030 within their work’ underlines Domenico Zipoli, Research Assistant at the Geneva Academy. ‘They also asked for a comprehensive report on the treaty body system's achievements to showcase its value and the need to strengthen it’ adds Domenico Zipoli.
This event closes a series of seven regional consultations that took place in Africa, Asia, Middle East, North America, Latin America and Eastern and Western Europe since 2016.
‘These regional consultations allowed getting inputs from academics and experts in the different regions’ underlines Felix Kirchmeier, Manager of Policy Studies at the Geneva Academy. ‘These inputs will feed in our report that will include suggestions for the future of the UN treaty body system’ he adds.
The United Nations (UN) human rights (HR) treaty bodies are a central pillar of the international HR protection system. They prevent HR violations by warning states about areas of concern, by advising them on durable solutions that address root causes and by adjudicating individual complaints.
Since the establishment of the first UN treaty body in 1970, both treaty ratifications and the treaty body system have expanded significantly. While this has enhanced HR protection worldwide, it has also created complex challenges that affect the system and those who interact with it: states, national HR institutions, UN entities, civil society organizations, individual complainants and rights-holders at large.
On 9 April 2014, the UN General Assembly (GA) adopted a landmark resolution (A/RES/68/268) on strengthening the treaty body system, which envisages a review of the measures taken at GA level in 2020. This review represents an opportunity to further reflect on the treaty body system’s future and develop innovative proposals and solutions without weakening the HR protection that the system currently affords.
The Geneva Academy is coordinating the academic input to this 2020 review via the creation of an academic network of independent researchers, a call for papers, a series of regional workshops, annual conferences in Geneva, as well as ongoing interactions with key stakeholders (i.e. states, UN treaty bodies, national HR institutions, civil society, UN entities and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights).
News
Giles Duley will travel to five case study states – Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Palestine, Ukraine and Vietnam – to document and tell the stories of persons with disabilities during and following armed conflict.
News
OUP
In this ground-breaking commentary, conducted under the auspices of the Geneva Academy, over sixty international law experts investigate the application of the Geneva Conventions and explain how they should be interpreted today.
Event
Trial International
Panelists will discuss the 2018 Annual Report on Universal Jurisdiction published annually by TRIAL International.
Event
UN Photo/Isaac Billy
This side event, co-organized with Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions will discuss the human rights obligations of armed non-state actors.
Training
ICRC
This training course provides participants with a deep understanding of the international legal framework for the protection of human rights (HR) and the environment as well as in-depth knowledge of how to promote environmental protection through existing HR mechanisms.
Training
Nicolas Axelrod / Ruom
Cette formation en ligne permet d’acquérir une connaissance approfondie des droits économiques, sociaux et culturels (DESC), des obligations des états et des mécanismes chargés de les protéger et de surveiller leur mise en œuvre.
Project
Sandra Pointet / Geneva Academy
The digital age offers unique opportunities to strengthen human rights implementation and monitoring and has transformed the means through which human rights are exercised. Equally, the digital age poses unique challenges in ensuring that states and businesses respect and protect our rights in the digital forum. The full extent of the human rights implications of the digital age remain unknown.
Project
© ILO/ Joydeep Mukherjee
This project aims to support the UN working group’s consultation process and thus contribute the promotion and protection of human rights and gender equality in relation to the business sector via research on international human rights law and policy related to gender equality guarantees and their application to business activities, and the organization of a global conference in Geneva.
