International Covenant on Civil

and Political Rights

35^th Meeting (AM)

States Parties to International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

 

Elect Nine Members to Humans Rights Committee

 

The Meeting of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights this morning re-elected six members and elected three new members to its monitoring body, the Human Rights Committee. 

Elected by secret ballot for four-year terms beginning on 1 January 2011 and ending on 31 December 2014, the new members will replace members whose terms expire on 31 December 2010.  The current terms of the six re-elected members were also set to expire by year’s end.

The re-elected members included:  Abdelfattah Amor (Tunisia), Yuji Iwasawa (Japan), Helen Keller (Switzerland), Iulia Antoanella Motoc (Romania), Christine Chanet (France) and Zonke Zanele Majodina (South Africa).  Newly elected to the Committee were Cornelis Flinterman (Netherlands), Gerald Neuman (United States) and Margo Waterval (Suriname). 

During the meeting, the representatives of Yemen, Kenya and Nepal took the floor to say that candidates from their respective countries had been withdrawn from the voting.

Opening the Meeting, Maggie Nicholson, Deputy Director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and a Representative of the Secretary-General, gave an overview of related developments since the States parties’ last major meeting in September 2008.  Since then, the Bahamas, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Vanuatu had become parties to the Covenant, and Pakistan had ratified it in June, bringing the total number of States parties to 166.

Brazil and Kazakhstan had acceded to the First Optional Protocol to the Covenant, pushing up the total number of States parties to it to 113, she said.  Moreover, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Uzbekistan had signed on to the Second Optional Protocol, aimed at abolishing the death penalty, bringing the total of number of States parties to that Protocol to 72. 

Ms. Nicholson also shed light on the work of the Committee, which on 29 October would celebrate its 100^th session with a full-day meeting in Geneva intended to reflect on its achievements and future role in protecting civil and political rights 

Since 2008, the Committee had examined 26 reports submitted by States parties under article 40 of the Covenant and had adopted concluding observations on them, she said.  Since the Optional Protocol’s entry into force, 1,960 communications had been registered.  Since September 2008, the Committee had adopted views on 95 communications under the Optional Protocol procedure, and had declared 14 communications admissible and 53 inadmissible.  Consideration of 23 communications was discontinued.

Further, the Committee’s workload under article 40 of the Covenant and the Optional Protocol had continued to grow, she said, noting the large number of State party reports received and cases registered.  A total of 24 initial or periodic reports and 398 communications were pending consideration.  The Committee was considering lengthening one of its sessions, or other special measures to remedy that situation. 

At its October 2008 session, the Committee also adopted General Comment No. 33 on States parties’ obligations under the Optional Protocol, and it was working on General Comment No. 34, which would replace General Comment No. 10 (1983) on article 19 of the Covenant concerning freedom of expression, she said.

She noted that the Committee had continued to contribute to the discussion prompted by the Secretary-General’s proposals for reforming and streamlining the treaty body system.  It favourably viewed ongoing efforts to harmonize such body’s working methods, and its chairperson and representatives had participated in related consultative processes.

At its last session in July, the Committee adopted its revised reporting guidelines to ensure they were compatible with those on the common core document contained in harmonized guidelines on reporting under international human rights treaties (document HRI/MC/2006/3 and Corr.1), she said.  It also agreed to a paper outlining practical modalities to implement the optional reporting procedure adopted in October 2009, which it would begin implementing next year for reports due in 2013.  The new procedure, however, would not apply to States parties’ initial reports or to periodic reports already submitted or awaiting the Committee’s consideration. 

The Meeting also elected by acclamation Ebenezer Appreku (Ghana) as its Chairperson, as well as Archil Gheghechkori (Georgia), Henry MacDonald (Suriname) and Seyla Eat (Cambodia) to serve as Vice Chairpersons. 

Voting Results

The results of the balloting were as follows:

Number of ballot papers:	163
Number of invalid ballots:	0
Number of valid ballots:	163
Abstentions:	0
Present and voting:	163
Required (absolute) majority:	82

Number of votes obtained:

Abdelfattah Amor (Tunisia)	141
Yuji Iwasawa (Japan)	141
Helen Keller (Switzerland)	131
Cornelius Flinterman (Netherlands)	129
Gerald Neuman (United States)	129
Iulia Antoanella Motoc (Romania)	117
Christine Chanet (France)	112
Zonke Zanele Majodina (South Africa)	107
Margo Waterval (Suriname)	101
Lucien Rakotoniaina (Madagascar)	86
Konstantine Vardzelashvili (Georgia)	65
Saad Hussain Fathallah Al-Ibrahem (Iraq)	44
Cheikh Saad-Bouh Kamara (Mauritania)	33
Alphonse Dinard Moubangat Moukonzi (Congo)	29
Richard Lukunda (Democratic Republic of the Congo)	27
Ould Babah Mohamdy (Mauritania)	21

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For information media • not an official record