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Oxford Law Citator
Contents
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Preliminary Material
Preface
Contents
List of Contributors
Main Text
Introduction: Appraising the United Nations Human Rights Regime
I.1 A sketch of the UN human rights system
I.2 The broad trajectory of human rights at the UN
I.3 Classifying the organs
I.4 Evolution of the UN system
I.5 Charter bodies
I.6 Treaty bodies
I.7 The challenge of evaluating the UN’s human rights record
I.8 Methodological challenges
I.9 The need to problematize criteria
I.10 Proposed framework
I.11 Asking the right questions
I.12 Identifying the benchmark(s)
I.13 Conclusion
Part I The Human Rights Mandate of the Principal Organs
1 The Security Council
1.1 The Council’s nature
(a) An intergovernmental forum
(b) Domination by big powers
(c) Openness to civil society
1.2 Human rights as an end: redefining international peace and security
(a) Promoting democracy
(b) Humanitarian crises
(c) Atrocities and international crimes
1.3 Human rights as a means: making human rights part of the Security Council’s activities
(a) Election monitoring
(b) Human rights promotion and protection
(c) Creation of and relationship with international criminal tribunals
1.4 Human rights as responsibility: holding the Security Council accountable to human rights standards
(a) Peace keeping and peace enforcement operations
(b) The effect of embargoes and blockades on civilian populations
(c) Targeted sanctions and terrorism
1.5 Conclusion
2 The General Assembly
2.1 Introduction
(a) Disconnected from victims’ plight on the ground
(b) Disconnected from colleagues in the same government
(c) Disconnected from a sense of relevance
2.2 The General Assembly and its main committees
2.3 The General Assembly’s activities
(a) The Assembly’s normative activities
i A historical milestone: adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
ii Treaty-making
iii Resolutions
iv Programmes of action
v Country situations
vi Requesting advisory opinions from the International Court of Justice
(b) The General Assembly’s institutional activities
i The General Assembly and the Security Council
ii The High Commissioner for Human Rights
iii The Human Rights Council
(c) The General Assembly’s establishment of field operations
2.4 Conclusion: towards connectedness?
3 The Economic and Social Council
3.1 Early promise to decline
(a) The question of communications
(b) Not the principal to its subsidiary organs
(c) The relative resurgence of ECOSOC and the decline of its human rights responsibilities
3.2 Possible areas of residual relevance of ECOSOC for human rights
(a) Conference follow-up and system-wide coordination
(b) Dialogue with the Bretton Woods institutions
(c) The continued significance of the determination of NGO status
3.3 Conclusion
4 The International Court of Justice
4.1 Human rights before the Court in a first phase: hesitation and restraint
4.2 The more recent picture: a qualitative leap?
(a) A gradual build-up of human rights-related cases
(b) The core human rights cases since 2010
i A great step ahead: Diallo
ii A deplorable step back: Georgia v. Russia
iii More than making up: Belgium v. Senegal
iv Human rights claims confronting more traditional law
i) Arrest Warrant
ii) Germany v. Italy
(c) The background and context of the Court’s human rights case law
4.3 Prospects for the future
4.4 A proper role for the Court
Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs
5 The Human Rights Council
5.1 Introduction
5.2 From Commission to Council
(a) The Commission on Human Rights
(b) Reform proposals
(c) The Council’s establishment
5.3 Composition
(a) Membership
(b) Elections
(c) Membership criteria
(d) Council Presidency
(e) Council sessions
5.4 Politicization and partiality
(a) Groups and alliances
(b) Selectivity, bias, and partiality
(c) Country-specific situations
(d) Ebbs and flows
5.5 Mandates and powers
(a) Promotion
(b) Protection
(c) Developing human rights
(d) Mainstreaming
(e) Functions and powers
5.6 Mechanisms
(a) Universal Periodic Review
(b) Special sessions
5.7 Special procedures
(a) Background
(b) Relationship with the Council
(c) Protecting, promoting, and developing human rights
5.8 Concluding observations
6 A Critical Appraisal of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee
6.1 Establishment and Mandate of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee
(a) The creation of the Advisory Committee
(b) Mandate and functions of the Committee
(c) Change and continuity with the Sub-Commission
6.2 Membership of the Committee
(a) Nomination and election
(b) Expertise profile
(c) Geographical distribution
6.3 Internal functioning
6.4 Overview of the Committee’s thematic work
(a) Recent mandates
(b) Previous mandates and achievements
6.5 Concluding remarks
7 The Commission on the Status of Women
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The mandate, composition and method of work
7.3 Issues of concern and agenda shifts
(a) The first phase: the equal legal rights orientation (late 1940s–early 1970s)
i Information gathering and research activities
ii Standard-setting (declarations and conventions)
iii Promotion
(b) The second phase: women in development and the UN Decade for Women
i The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
ii The International Women’s Year and the UN Decade for Women
(c) The third phase: women’s rights, empowerment, and gender mainstreaming
i The Nairobi Conference
ii Violence against Women and ‘Gendering’ of Human Rights
iii The Beijing Conference (1995)
iv A Renewed Role for the CSW
v From the Millennium Development Goals to the Sustainable Development Goals
vi UN Women
7.4 Problems and prevailing issues
7.5 Responding to alternative voices but endorsing liberal feminism
8 The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
8.1 Introduction
8.2 A ‘home’ for indigenous peoples at the UN
8.3 ‘A new function’: the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
8.4 The PFII as non-treaty body: overseeing implementation of the Declaration
(a) Implementation review
(b) Responding to rights violations
(c) General comments
8.5 Concluding observations
Part III Organs Monitoring Treaty Compliance
9 The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
9.1 Introduction
9.2 CERD and its monitoring procedures
(a) Membership and ethos
(b) State party reports
(c) Early warning and urgent action
(d) General recommendations
(e) Article 14 communications
(f) Inter-State disputes
(g) Liaison with UN bodies
(h) Sources of information: NGOs and National Human Rights Institutions
9.3 Core principles in CERD practice
(a) Racial discrimination, grounds and victims
(b) Special measures
(c) Segregation and apartheid
(d) Article 4: hate speech
9.4 Overview and conclusions
10 The Human Rights Committee
10.1 General Overview of the Human Rights Committee
(a) Background
(b) Membership
(c) Structure and operation
10.2 The functions of the Human Rights Committee
(a) The reporting mechanism
i Overview of the procedure
ii ‘Fact-finding’ and information
iii A ‘constructive dialogue’
iv The problem of late, incomplete, or absent reports
v Concluding observations
(b) The individual communication mechanism
i Early resistance
ii Overview of the Procedure
iii Admissibility challenges
iv Interim measures
v Views, remedies, and follow-up
(c) The inter-state communication mechanism
(d) General comments
10.3 The Legal Regime of the ICCPR
(a) The structure of states’ obligations
(b) Reservations
(c) Derogation
10.4 The interpretation of the ICCPR by the Human Rights Committee
(a) The Challenge of a Global Interpretation of the ICCPR
(b) The Construction of the Committee’s Jurisprudence
10.5 Conclusions
11 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The Committee and its work: an overview
(a) The composition of the Committee
(b) The functions of the Committee and its meeting time
(c) The reporting procedure
(d) Guidance given by CEDAW as to the contents of report
(e) Status of submission of reports
i Before the dialogue
(f) Consideration of reports
(g) Follow-up procedure on Concluding Observations
11.3 Developing a jurisprudence of the Convention
(a) General recommendations
(b) NGOs and the work of the Committee
(c) Reservations
11.4 Optional Protocol to the Convention
(a) Individual communications procedure
(b) Obligations of due diligence, especially in relation to violence against women
(c) Follow-up procedure for individual communications
(d) Inquiry procedure
11.5 Impact of the Convention and the Committee’s work
11.6 Conclusion
12 The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The Committee: an overview
(a) Antecedents
(b) Meeting time
(c) Membership
12.3 The Committee’s principal activities
(a) Examining States parties’ Reports
i Goals of reporting
ii Periodicity and types of report
iii Follow-up
iv Overdue reports
v Responding to non-reporting
vi Non-appearance
(b) Days of general discussion
(c) General comments
(d) Communications
(e) Interstate communications and the inquiry procedure
(f) Statements
(g) Norm clarification
12.4 The Committee’s principal partners
(a) Civil society
(b) UN human rights bodies
12.5 An assessment
(a) The literature on the Committee
(b) Evaluating impact
i The coherence of the Committee’s approach to monitoring
ii The Committee’s response to particularly challenging issues
iii The Committee’s capacity to address new issues
iv The Committee’s procedural innovation
v The Committee’s success in disseminating the results of its work
13 The Committee against Torture and the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Origin and composition of the Committee
(a) Institutional location and financing
13.3 Monitoring procedures
i The procedures
ii Meeting time
(a) Reporting procedure (Article 19)
i States’ record of submission of reports
ii CAT’s procedure for consideration of reports
i) Constructive dialogue
ii) Concluding observations and follow-up
iii) Follow-up to concluding observations
iv) The role and input of NGOs
iii The power of the Committee to make ‘general comments’
(b) Investigation on its own initiative (Article 20)
(c) Inquiries undertaken
(d) Inter-state complaints (Article 21)
(e) Reference to arbitration and judicial determination (Article 30)
(f) Individual complaints (Article 22)
i The procedure
ii The Committee's general approach: procedural matters
i) Interim measures
ii) Compliance with and follow-up of decisions in individual cases
iii) Cases invoking Article 3
i The test and the standard of proof applied
ii Contentious issues
iii Remedy for potential or actual violation of Article 3
13.4 Interpreting the convention: progress and challenges
(a) Reservations
(b) Trends in interpretation by the Committee
13.5 The Optional Protocol to the Convention and the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture
13.6 Conclusion
14 The Committee on the Rights of the Child
Preliminary Material
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Membership and independence
14.3 The State party report
14.4 Consideration of State party reports
14.5 Backlog of reports and parallel chambers
14.6 Follow-up
14.7 Reservations
14.8 General Comments
14.9 The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict and the Optional Protocol on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
14.10 The Optional Protocol on a communications procedure
14.11 Relationship with other human rights mechanisms and UN entities
14.12 Impact of the Convention at the national level
14.13 Concluding remarks
15 The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Establishment, composition, and administration of the Committee
15.3 General task of interpreting the UNCRPD
(a) Purpose and definitions
(b) Articles of general application
(c) Specific rights articles
15.4 Committee Mandate, Functions, and Monitoring Procedures
(a) Mandate and functions
(b) Reporting to the Committee
(c) Optional Protocol Communications Procedure
(d) Optional Protocol inquiry procedure
(e) Publicity and dissemination of the UNCRPD and CRPD work product
15.5 Other mechanisms relevant to monitoring and implementation of the UNCRPD
(a) Conferences of States parties
(b) National level monitoring
(c) Disability statistics and data collection
(d) Relationship of the CRPD with other bodies
(e) NGO participation in monitoring and implementation processes
(f) Framework for international cooperation
15.6 Monitoring and implementation beyond the framework of the UNCRPD
15.7 An emerging CRPD jurisprudence
15.8 Conclusion
Note
16 The Committee on Enforced Disappearances
16.1 Introduction
16.2 The structure of the Committee
(a) The debate: is there a need for a new body ?
(b) An autonomous committee
(c) A committee of independent experts
(d) The sunset clause and the need for cooperation
(e) Limitation with regard to the ratione temporis competence
16.3 The functions of the Committee
(a) ‘Ordinary but improved’ functions
i State party reports (Article 29)
ii Complaints
iii Inquiries (Article 33)
(b) New mechanisms
i Early warning and urgent action (Article 30)
ii Action in case of crimes against humanity (Article 34)
16.4 Conclusion
17 The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Membership and functioning of the Migrant Workers Committee
(a) Membership
(b) Election process
(c) Functioning and working methods
17.3 Functions of the Migrant Workers Committee
(a) Consideration of states’ reports
i Content of states’ reports
ii Examination of states’ reports
(b) Examination of inter-state and individual complaints
i Examination of inter-state complaints
ii Examination of individual complaints
(c) General Comments
17.4 Cooperation of the Migrant Workers Committee with other concerned bodies
(a) International Labour Organisation
i Participation of ILO in the meetings of the Migrant Workers Committee
ii Participation of ILO in the examination of states’ reports on the implementation of the Migrant Workers Convention
(b) Other concerned international organizations
i The International Organization for Migration
ii The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
iii Other United Nations and regional organizations
(c) Relationships with other treaty bodies
(d) Relationships with UN Special Procedures and other related mechanisms
(e) Non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions
17.5 Conclusion
18 Reform of the UN Human Rights Treaty Body System
18.1 Introduction
18.2 Reports of the Independent Expert 1989–1997
18.3 The unified standing treaty body proposal
18.4 Strengthening the treaty body system 2009–2012
18.5 The intergovernmental process on treaty body reform 2012–2014
18.6 The road ahead
18.7 Conclusion
Part IV The Governance of Human Rights
19 The High Commissioner for Human Rights
19.1 Introduction: the creation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
19.2 The High Commissioner for Human Rights
19.3 The organization of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
19.4 The activities of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(a) The need to openly address violations
(b) Technical cooperation
(c) System-wide cooperation and mainstreaming
(d) Rapid response and the establishment of field operations
19.5 The relationship with the UN Secretary-General
19.6 Concluding remarks
20 Human Rights Co-Ordination Within the UN System
20.1 Introduction
20.2 The rationale for human rights coordination
(a) Legal factors: the importance of the Charter
(b) The enduring paradigm: development as democracy, good governance and the rule of law
(c) From the Millennium to 2030: sustainable development and the ascent of the social
(d) The ways of human rights coordination
i From the 1990s conferences to Agenda 2030
ii Old and new champions of human rights
(i) UNDP
(ii) The sectoral agencies
(iii) The system within the system: the finance institutions
iii Interagency policy coordination: the ACC/CEB and the UNDG
20.3 Conclusion: human rights and UN system cohesion
Further Material
Index
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Part III Organs Monitoring Treaty Compliance, 15 The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 15.4 Committee Mandate, Functions, and Monitoring Procedures
Janet E Lord, Michael Ashley Stein
From:
The United Nations and Human Rights: A Critical Appraisal (2nd Edition)
Edited By: Frédéric Mégret, Philip Alston
Content type:
Book content
Product:
Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law [OSAIL]
Published in print:
02 April 2020
ISBN:
9780198298373
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