Treaty Bodies | Strengthening treaty bodies, protecting human rights
In 2020, the United Nations will review the functioning of the ten human rights treaty bodies. OpenGlobalRights and ISHR are publishing a series of op-eds to stimulate more discussion on ways to improve the work of the treaty bodies. Eleven of these op-eds are collated in a publication.
What challenges and solutions for improving the work of UN treaty bodies?
In 2020, the United Nations will review the functioning of the ten human rights treaty bodies. While the issue has received some attention from the academic community, there has been only limited interest from States and international NGOs, and very limited consultation of national and local actors. The treaty bodies are far from perfect, but they have contributed to far-reaching changes and improvements in human rights protection. For many victims of human rights violations, they continue to constitute a last hope for justice. Their improvement and effective functioning is critical to the global human rights movement.
In advance of the UN review, OpenGlobalRights and the International Service for Human Rights want to stimulate more discussion on ways to improve the work of the treaty bodies, by launching a series of op-eds addressing the following questions:
What are the main challenges facing the treaty bodies?
What innovations have been tried to meet these challenges?
What more can be done?
What examples are there of the impact of the treaty bodies, and what lessons emerge from such cases?
Watch our video and read the series of op-eds listed below!
Op-ed series: “Strengthening treaty bodies, protecting human rights: Views from the ground”
A newly-released confidential letter by a UN Special Rapporteur documents the disbarment of human rights lawyers in China and the tightening ideological control over lawyers and law firms. The UN expert denounces disappearances, closed-door trials, harassment of relatives, travel bans, and other abuses targeting human rights lawyers.
On Tuesday 16 April 2024, ISHR delivered to both Geneva’s Administrative Council and its legislative counterpart, the Municipal Council, physical copies of the more than 1000 signatures collected in support of a memorial honouring Chinese human rights defender Cao Shunli.
The 79th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights will be held in Banjul, The Gambia, from 14 May to 3 June 2024. The session will be preceded by the NGO Forum, which will be held in hybrid format from the 11-13 May 2024.