MEMBERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE EXPRESS CONCERN AT VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THEIR BEHALF WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTATION

26 March 1998

Press Release
HR/CT/509

MEMBERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE EXPRESS CONCERN AT VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THEIR BEHALF WITHOUT PRIOR CONSULTATION

19980326 Meeting of Persons Chairing Human Rights Treaty Bodies Has No Mandate as 'Trustee of Treaty Monitoring System', They Stress

Members of the Human Rights Committee this afternoon expressed concern that the person who chaired two recent meetings of the chairpersons of United Nations treaty bodies had exceeded his mandate by speaking to the Commission on Human Rights on the Committee's behalf without consulting them beforehand.

In reviewing the reports of those meetings, which met last month and in September of 1997, the members drew attention to statements made by Philip Alston, who chaired the meeting. One expert said Mr. Alston had claimed that the chairpersons were the trustees of the human rights treaty monitoring system, which was not the case.

Many experts strongly urged Christine Chanet, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, to take action to disassociate the Committee from Mr. Alston's statement. Ms. Chanet, who supported that sentiment, said she would be chairing the next meeting, scheduled for September of this year.

Attention was also drawn to a letter Mr. Alston had been asked to send to the International Law Commission (ILC) on behalf of the chairpersons on reservations to human rights treaties. Ms. Chanet was asked to urge Mr. Alston to consult with the chairpersons before sending that letter.

Statements were made by the experts from Mauritius, Germany, India, Italy and Canada. The Committee Secretary also spoke.

Also this afternoon, Ms. Chanet announced that a working group would meet informally to draft a letter to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson on the Committee's critical staffing needs. The group will be composed of the experts from Australia, Finland and Mauritius.

The Human Rights Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 27 March, to consider Uruguay's fourth periodic report on its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Committee Work Programme

The Human Rights Committee met this afternoon to continue its consideration of two reports on meetings of the chairpersons of human rights treaty bodies, held last month and during September 1997. (For further background information, see Press Release HR/CT/506 of 25 March.)

Statements

RAJSOOMER LALLAH, expert from Mauritius, cited a statement by Philip Alston, who chaired the meetings of the chairpersons of human rights treaty bodies. Mr. Alston said that the chairpersons had strongly supported the view of the United Nations Legal Counsel concerning the denunciation of human rights treaties. However, the Human Rights Committee had never taken a decision on that, and he wondered if the chairpersons had any mandate to make that statement. Was the meeting of the chairpersons erecting itself into some kind of super-institution over the treaty bodies?

On that statement, Mr. Alston said the chairpersons believed that in a great number of cases, the human rights monitoring system, of which they were the trustees, was working very well, the expert said. When did the chairpersons become trustees of the treaty bodies? The chairpersons might legitimately look into the procedures the Committees adopted in coordinating reporting procedures for States parties, as well as rules of procedures to further the Committee's work. However, they should not make decisions on matters of principle, which were up to the Committees to decide. When the chairpersons next met, maybe there should be a change of direction in their work.

He also cited Mr. Alston's reference to the challenges of the continuing reform of the United Nations system. Although the Committee had considered that issue, he could not support Mr. Alston's statement without prior consultation. Yet that statement was made for all the chairpersons of the treaty bodies, including the Human Rights Committee.

CHRISTINE CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said the expert from Mauritius was referring to the Alston report and not the chairpersons' report. Mr. Alston, in turn, had overextended his own mandate by addressing his remarks to the Commission on Human Rights, which was not in his mandate.

Mr. LALLAH, expert from Mauritius, said it was inappropriate for Mr. Alston to raise such issues while describing himself as the chairperson of the eighth and ninth meetings of the treaty body chairpersons. During the next meeting of the chairpersons, the issue should be raised and the record set straight. Although the Human Rights Committee was not consulted, the Alston report drew conclusions about its work and sent them on to the Commission.

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ECKART KLEIN, expert from Germany, asked whether that was the first time Mr. Alston had been invited by the Commission.

Ms. CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said Mr. Alston's approach to the Commission had not been discussed. Rather, he had taken it on himself as chairperson of the meeting.

PRAFULLACHANDRA NATWARLAL BHAGWATI, expert from India, speaking also for the expert from Germany, asked how Mr. Alston's visit to the Commission had come about.

Ms. CHANET, Chairman and expert from France, said she did not know, because the matter had not been raised at the chairpersons' meeting.

FAUSTO POCAR, expert from Italy, said that the chairperson of a meeting stopped being the chairperson when that meeting concluded. Mr. Alston had presented himself as chairperson after the meeting was over and had gone to the Commission in that capacity when he was no longer in a position to do so. The Chairman of the Human Rights Committee should write a letter stating that was the case.

Ms. CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said she would write such a letter, as Mr. Alston had gone well beyond his mandate. His mandate as chairperson of the chairpersons' meeting had come to an end, and he would not be the chairperson when the group met again in September.

MAXWELL YALDEN, expert from Canada, said that if Mr. Alston would not be chairperson of the September meeting, a statement should be made at a future chairpersons' meeting that that kind of initiative was not something to which the Human Rights Committee agreed. The next chairperson of the meeting should be discouraged from making such statements.

Ms. CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said she would be the next chairperson of that meeting.

Mr. YALDEN, expert from Canada, said it should still be mentioned, one way or another, that the Committee had never allowed anyone to speak for it. It should be a comment of a general nature, directed at no one in particular. The chairperson of the chairpersons' meeting had no right to speak for the Committee without prior consultation.

Ms. CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said she agreed. The report did not faithfully reflect what happened in the meeting of the chairpersons. Previous reports of meetings were not written in the same manner or aimed at the same objectives. That was attributable to Mr. Alston's personality, who authored the report; it was a specific occurrence. Mr.

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Alston had gone far beyond his mandate in making that statement. He said he was speaking for the chairpersons, but he mentioned matters that had not been mentioned in the report nor were they discussed by the chairpersons.

ALFRED DE ZAYAS, Committee Secretary, said he could fully confirm that many of the points made in the statement had not been discussed during the meeting. On a related matter, he said Mr. Alston intended to send a letter on the behalf of the chairpersons to the Chairman of the International Law Commission (ILC) on the subject of reservations. It might be preferable to ask if he had completed a draft of that letter. If so, he should solicit opinions from the other chairpersons before sending it.

Mr. POCAR, expert from Italy, asked whether the meeting had mandated Mr. Alston to submit the views of the chairpersons to the ILC. If not, he should send the letter on his own behalf.

Ms. CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said that was a more delicate issue. The chairpersons had asked him to send such a letter on their behalf.

Mr. KLEIN, expert from Germany, said Mr. Alston should not write to the ILC in the name of the Human Rights Committee, and he should know that immediately.

Ms. CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said that Mr. Alston might have misunderstood his mandate with respect to the ILC letter, and had gone beyond what was agreed upon by the chairpersons.

Mr. POCAR, expert from Italy, said if Mr. Alston was going to send a letter to the ILC in which he was speaking for the Committee without its permission, then the Committee should notify the ILC to that effect.

Ms. CHANET, Committee Chairman and expert from France, said she agreed and would write that letter.

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