Geneva Academy>
24 April 2023
At a meeting co-hosted by the Geneva Human Rights Platform (GHRP) and the Paris Human Rights Center, members of United Nations (UN) Treaty Bodies (TBs) responsible for individual communications discussed the implementation of a coherent approach to dealing with communications brought by individuals who seek justice at the international level.
‘This meeting forms part of our initiative on UN TBs individual communications, a longstanding project aimed at supporting the harmonization of individual communications and their coherent, effective and efficient handling’ explains Felix Kirchmeier, Executive Director of the Geneva Human Rights Platform.
‘It follows up on previous meetings held in Paris and Geneva, on a visit to the Registry of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, as well as on a 2019 publication that provides concrete guidance to improve the system’ he adds.
‘Communications procedures before human rights treaty bodies certainly lack human and financial resources to function properly. But even if hopefully these resources are granted, improving and harmonizing rules of procedures and working methods is key to success. TBs need to be aligned on such important matters as interim measures, third-party interventions or the much needed ‘digital uplift’’ underlines Professor Olivier de Frouville, Member of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and Director of the Paris Human Rights Centre.
Geneva Academy
Geneva Academy
Geneva Academy>
Individual Communications are a major instrument to enforce the rights enshrined in the corresponding human rights treaties and provide victims with an effective remedy before an international body. They also represent a key entry point for victims of human rights violations to the UN human rights system.
Currently, eight TBs out of ten may receive individual communications. While the ways they handle them are, in many aspects, similar, they still differ in important aspects, which include methods of work and the practice at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Petitions and Urgent Actions Section (PUAS), which prepares and supports the procedure.
The exchanges during this meeting focused on four issues and related harmonization questions: the life cycle of individual communications; interim and protection measures; third-party interventions and friendly settlement; and communication relating to individual communications, including outreach and reactions from state parties.
‘The discussions highlighted concrete avenues for alignment between the different procedures used by TBs, as well as how relatively recent procedures, such as friendly settlements, could be developed in a coherent way’ underlines Felix Kirchmeier.
‘In a next step, TBs and OHCHR can take these results further, integrating them into the working methods of the TB system’ he adds.
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 November highlight of the directory: SIMORE Plus.
Adobe
Our new Working Paper invites readers to embark on a critical journey, shedding light on the intricate dynamics between security and human rights and calls for us to consider the effectiveness of counterterrorism policies as a matter of human rights law, demonstrating the benefits of this approach in improving the rationality of the decision-making process.
CCPR Centre
This discussion will look into election processes for UN TBs, the impact of Feminist Foreign Policy on this process, what can we learn from fellow international mechanisms, as well as the inclusion of a vetting process.
Adobe
This training course will examine how the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights have been utilized to advance the concept of business respect for human rights throughout the UN system, the impact of the Guiding Principles on other international organizations, as well as the impact of standards and guidance developed by these different bodies.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré
This executive course, tailored for Geneva-based diplomats and co-organized with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, addresses the negotiation practices at the multilateral level, by taking the UN Human Rights Council as an example of formal and informal negotiation and decision-making processes by an international intergovernmental body.
CCPR Centre
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.
Adobe
To unpack the challenges raised by artificial intelligence, this project will target two emerging and under-researched areas: digital military technologies and neurotechnology.