News

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.

On 10-11 December 2019, members of United Nations treaty bodies, as well as representatives of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Geneva Academy discussed the so-called simplified reporting procedure.

We co-organized on 29 November 2018 with the BCHR-network a consultation for the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Business and Human Rights to inform their new project on business in conflict and post-conflict settings.

Around 60 diplomats participated in the briefing which addressed the upcoming review at the General Assembly and the outcomes of our Oslo Conference, co-organized with the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, on the meaning of this review for national stakeholders.

On 17–18 October 2018, the two coordinators of the Geneva Human Rights Platform, Felix Kirchmeier and Kamelia Kemileva, participated in Oslo in a conference on the role that domestic human rights actors play towards the 2020 review of United Nations treaty bodies.

Felix Kirchmeier, coordinator of the Geneva Human Rights Platform briefed the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the main proposals developed by the Academic Platform on Treaty Body Review 2020.

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 treaty bodies sessions.

The two coordinators of the Academic Platform on Treaty Body Review 2020, Felix Kirchmeier and Kamelia Kemileva, presented our publication ‘Optimizing the UN Treaty Bodies System’ at an informal meeting of the European Union Working Party on Human Rights (COHOM).

In a debate organized by the Geneva Academy, panelists discussed the legal consequences of the United States' withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council.

During an expert seminar UN Special Procedures, members of UN treaty bodies, staff from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as representatives from civil society and the Swiss Government discussed the role that UN human rights mechanisms play in monitoring the Sustainable Development Goals that seek to realize economic, social and cultural rights.