1. KEY International and European human rights monitoring and complaint mechanisms
Convening in Legal Advocacy on Roma Health Rights
Macedonia, Ohrid, July 9-11, 2012

2. Human Rights Monitoring and Complaint Mechanisms
UN/European (Council of Europe)
Judicial/non-judicial

3. UN Human Rights Bodies Charter-based bodies (5)
Human Rights Council
Universal Periodic Review
Commission on Human Rights
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure
Treaty based bodies (10)
Human Rights Committee (CCPR)
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
Committee against Torture (CAT)
Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT)
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED)

4. UN Complaint Procedures
Individual communications
not all HR treaty bodies can consider individual complaints
Individual who claims his/her human rights have been violated or a third party on a behalf of the individuals
State-to-state complaints
Never used
Inquiries
HR body may on its own initiative initiate inquiries if they have received reliable information containing well-founded indications of serious or systematic violations of the conventions in a State party.
Only CAT and CEDAW
Applicable to SRB, MK, RO
Special procedures
mechanisms to address either specific country situations or thematic issues, including the right to health, in all parts of the world
Activities: responding to individual complaints, conducting studies, providing advice on technical cooperation at the country level, promotional activities
Human Rights Council complaint procedure

5. Individual communications
Only 5 human rights bodies can consider individual complaints (communications)
The most relevant for Roma health rights:
Human Rights Committee - communications relating to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
CEDAW - the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
CAT - Convention Against Torture
CERD - the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

6. Lodging a complaint - general rules
Anyone claiming his/her rights have been violated
Possibility to bring a claim on behalf of another person if his/her written consent is obtained and provided to the committee
Against a State that is party to the treaty and recognized competence of the committee
No particular form; in written and signed by the applicant
In one of the working languages

7. Lodging a complaint - content
Provide basic personal information
Specify State party against which claim is directed
Set out, in chronological order, all the facts on which the claim is based
Describe the steps taken to exhaust the remedies available domestically
State whether the case have been submitted to another means of international investigation or settlement
Explain why the facts outlined in the claim constitute a human rights violation of the treaty
Not strictly necessary to identify the specific articles of the treaty that have allegedly been violated.
Provide evidence - supply all documents of relevance to the claims and arguments
Legal aid is not provided by the procedure
NO TIME LIMITS!!! Exception, CERD – 6 month after the final decision at national level

8. Interim measures
Each committee has the facility to take urgent action where irreparable harm would otherwise be suffered before the case is examined in the usual course
Such requests are issued to prevent actions that cannot later be undone
It is advisable to state request for urgent action explicitly in the claim

9. Admissibility criteria
Provided proof of consent if acting on behalf of another person
Victim has to demonstrate personal and direct affect of the law, policy, practice, act or omission of the State party
Compatibility of the complaint with rights actually protected by the treaty
Sufficiently substantiated complaint
Exhaustion of all domestic remedies. Limited exceptions to this rule
Bringing repeated claims to the committee on the same issue although they have already been dismissed
Reservation of the State precluding the complaint
Complaint being examined under another mechanism of international settlement

10. Committee’s decision Case is inadmissible
Case constitutes violation of the treaty
Case does not constitutes violation of the treaty
Committee’s decision is final
If found that the applicant was a victim of a violation of the State party, it invites the State party to supply information within three months on the steps it has taken to give effect to its findings

11. European HR complaint mechanisms
Key instruments
ECHR – European Convention on Human Rights
European Social Charter (Revised)
Key mechanisms
ECtHR – European Court of Human Rights
ECSR – European Committee of Social Rights

12. European Committee of Social Rights
The rights guaranteed by the Charter concern all individuals in their daily lives:
Housing
Health
Education
Employment
Legal and Social Protection
Free movement of persons
Non-discrimination
The ECHR’s mandate: to judge that States party are in conformity in law and in practice with the provisions of the European Social Charter.
Collective complaint mechanism – but RO, SRB and MK have not ratified protocol on collective complaint mechanisms

13. European Court of Human Rights
ECtHR protects the rights guaranteed in the ECHR
ECHR- does not explicitly protect right to health
Right to health (including patient’s rights) can be brought under the right to life, prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment, respect for private and family life, right to effective legal remedy, prohibition of discrimination
Key admissibility criteria:
Individual application
Victim status
Right guaranteed under ECHR
All available domestic legal remedies exhausted
Time limit: 6 months from the final decision at national level
Other

14. Examples of health rights violations
Right to Privacy
EXAMPLES OF (POTENTIAL) VIOLATIONS
A doctor discloses a patient’s history of drug use or addiction without his or her consent
Government requires disclosure of HIV status on certain forms
Health care workers require young people to obtain parental
Consent as a condition of receiving sexual health services
Right to Information
EXAMPLES OF (POTENTIAL) VIOLATIONS
Government bans publications about drug use or harm reduction, claiming it promotes illegal activity
 Young people are deliberately denied information about sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the use of condoms
 Roma women lack access to information on sexual and reproductive health

15. Examples of health rights violations
Right to Bodily Integrity
EXAMPLES OF (POTENTIAL) VIOLATIONS
A Roma woman is sterilized against her will
 Doctors compel a drug-using pregnant woman to undergo an abortion
 Treatment is routinely given to residents of an institution without their consent as they are assumed to lack the capacity to make decisions about their treatment and care
Right to Life
EXAMPLES OF (POTENTIAL) VIOLATIONS
Doctors refuse to treat a person who is experiencing a drug overdose because drug use is illegal, resulting in the person’s death
 Drug users die as a result of poor fire safety in a locked hospital ward
 The mortality rate of an institution is particularly high during the
winter months due to the poor condition of the building, inadequate
sanitation and heating, and poor quality of care

16. Examples of health rights violations
Right to Life
EXAMPLES OF (POTENTIAL) VIOLATIONS
Doctors refuse to treat a person who is experiencing a drug overdose because drug use is illegal, resulting in the person’s death
 Drug users die as a result of poor fire safety in a locked hospital ward
 The mortality rate of an institution is particularly high during the winter months due to the poor condition of the building, inadequate sanitation and heating, and poor quality of care
Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health
State fails to take progressive steps to ensure access to antiretroviral drugs for people living with HIV or to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission
 Doctors and health facilities are not located in proportionate proximity to certain poor neighborhoods
 State systematically fails to provide training in palliative care for its medical personnel
 A child in a social care home becomes bedridden due to malnutrition
 Women with mental disabilities are denied reproductive health