1. INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS MECHANISMS:
TREATY
AND
NON-TREATY
MECHANISMS

2. International treaties
Treaty
Articles
Body
CCPR
Arts
Human Rights Committee
CESCR
Arts
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
CERD
Arts. 8-15
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
CEDAW
Arts
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
CRC
Arts
Committee on the Rights of the Child
CAT
Arts
Committee Against Torture (also SPT under OPCAT)
CRPD
Arts
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
CRMW
Arts
Committee on Migrant Workers
CPED
Arts
Committee on Enforced Disappearance
International treaties
Regional treaties
Covered already
TREATY

3. Composition, election and membership
Treaty
Articles
CCPR
Arts
CESCR
Arts
CERD
Arts. 8-15
CEDAW
Arts
CRC
Arts
CAT
Arts
CRPD
Arts
CRMW
Arts
CPED
Arts 1
Composition, election and membership
TREATY 2
Tools

4. Who sits on the committees?

5. Composition and Members Example: Human Rights Committee; CCPR, Art. 28
The ”Human Rights Committee … shall consist of eighteen members.”
“The Committee shall be composed of nationals of the States Parties to the present Covenant.”
”The Committee shall be … persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights.”
”[C]onsideration [should be] given to the usefulness of the participation of some persons having legal experience.”
”The members … shall serve in their personal capacities.”

6. What tools do treaty bodies possess?
Periodic Reports & Concluding Observations
Inter-State Complaints
General Comments
Inquiry Procedures
Individual Complaints
Statements

7. Current problems Purpose:
To institute a sincere and constructive dialogue
Current problems
Periodic Reports & Concluding Observations
State reports and
shadow reports
Failure to submit reports
State reports and
Concluding Observations are published in full text
Failure to comply with Concluding Observations
Reform issues:
Standardizing reports
Single reports
«Treaty body strengthening process» – to be discussed later

8. A treaty body’s general interpretation of convention provisions
CEDAW
CCPR
CMW
CERD
CESCR
CRPD
CRC
CAT
CED
General Comments
A treaty body’s general interpretation of convention provisions
Sometimes uncertain legal basis, but there has never been any opposition
GCs give easily accessible, and fairly authoritative, information

10. Procedural requirements Substantive requirements Opt-in / opt-out
Ratione personae
CCPR
CMW
Ratione loci
CERD
CRC
CAT
CESCR
Ratione temporis
CEDAW
CRPD
Ratione materiae
CED
Jurisdiction
Procedural requirements
Substantive requirements
Opt-in / opt-out
Individual Complaints
Collective complaints?
Admissibility criteria
Committee’s «views»
States’ duty to comply

11. Confidential procedures
If a Committee receives well-founded indications of serious or systematic violations of the conventions in a State party
SPT
Established by OPCAT 2002/2006
Operational 2007
Mandate:
Operational function
Advisory function
Inquiry Procedures
CAT
CRC
CEDAW
Opt-in / opt-out
Confidential procedures

12. “With a view to assisting States parties to the Covenant, the Committee adopts statements to clarify and confirm its position with respect to major international developments and issues bearing upon the implementation of the Covenant.”
Similar function as General Comments: Statements give easily accessible, and fairly authoritative, information
Statements
CESCR
CEDAW
(CAT)

13. The treaty body strengthening process
Non-exhaustive
list of proposals

14. Time for discussion, if time allows
Consider the following statement: «Regional and international human rights treaty bodies are unable to respond adequately to systematic and large-scale human rights violations.» True or false?

15. Conflicts of norms
Conflicts between norms in different treaties: Read Article 14 CRPD ( and Article 9 ICCPR ( Can persons with a mental illness be deprived of their liberty for the purpose of forced treatment/medication or because they represent a danger to themselves or to others?
Conflicts between norms in the same treaty: Read Article 8 and 10 ECHR ( Can a tabloid paper publish paparazzi photos of a celebrity wedding against the celebrity’s will? Read the ECtHR’s judgment in Lillo-Stenberg and Sæther v. Norway ( (or the more high profile cases relating to Princess Caroline of Monaco, but those cases are a bit longer, see e.g. von Hannover v. Germany (no. 2),