Human Rights Committee

101^st Session

2798^th Meeting* (PM)

Human Rights Committee Adopts Reports of Special Rapporteurs for Follow-Up

 

on Concluding Observations, Individual Communications

 

The Human Rights Committee today adopted the progress report of its Special Rapporteur for Follow-Up on Concluding Observations, which provides a country-by-country update on correspondence with States parties on implementation of the expert body’s recommendations on their compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Committee also adopted the Follow-up Progress Report on Individual Communications, which outlined correspondence received since the Committee’s last session in October 2010 on measures by States parties to give effect to the Committee's views on claims by individuals that their human rights have been violated.

Presenting the Report on the Follow-Up on Concluding Observations on behalf of Abdelfattah Amor, expert from Tunisia and Special Rapporteur for that portfolio, a representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that, of the 10 reports submitted by States parties, four had been analysed and approved, one was postponed and five had not been verified.  Another report remained without a response.

Turning to the report as a whole, she highlighted the status of the follow-up reports from 37 countries and one United Nations Mission, saying that new information had been presented in the report submitted by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on the human rights situation in that area.  Several experts suggested that further action by the Committee was likely needed.

She also drew attention to countries from which the Special Rapporteur required more information.  Reminders would be sent to Ukraine, Georgia, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Botswana, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Panama, Denmark, Sweden, Chad, Netherlands, United Republic of Tanzania and Ecuador. The Committee noted that, while a reminder should be sent to Japan, it might — given current events there — be considered a special situation.

The Committee also discussed a number of procedural issues that should be “tweaked” to ensure consistency across the board, with some experts commenting that the procedure for engaging with States parties was evolving, especially concerning those States whose reports should have already been taken off the Committee’s agenda.  Experts also highlighted areas where the follow-up procedure had been completed and those where further information was required in order to close the case.

When the Committee took up the follow-up progress report on individual communications, it was introduced by Yuji Iwasawa, expert from Japan, who has assumed the duties of the Special Rapporteur for Follow-Up to Views since October 2010, when former Committee member Ruth Wedgwood ended her tenure.  He noted that he would hand over these duties to Krister Thelin, expert from Sweden, who had been named the new Special Rapporteur and would present the next progress report at the Committee’s July 2011 session.

In each of the 27 cases reviewed in the current progress report, the Committee decided to consider the follow-up dialogue to be ongoing.  In two cases — one relating to allegations of undue pre-trial delay in Algeria and an older case regarding the dismissal of 68 judges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — the Committee agreed that further attempts should be made to organize a meeting between the Special Rapporteur and the respective States parties for July 2011.

Before adopting the report as a whole, the Committee expressed concern at Uzbekistan’s response to six cases involving allegations ranging from unjustified restriction of freedom of movement to torture and death.  Committee Chair Zonke Zanele Majodina, expert from South Africa, said it was “disturbing” that in all six cases the Uzbek Government had ruled, through its Inter-Institutional Group monitoring respect of human rights by law-enforcement authorities, that the allegations were “groundless”.  In light of its concerns, the Committee decided to consider, under different circumstances, the functioning of Uzbekistan’s Inter-Institutional Group. 

The Human Rights Committee will reconvene at 3 p.m. Friday, 1 April, to consider its working methods, before concluding its 101^st session.

* *** *

__________

The 2791^st through 2797^th Meetings were closed.

For information media • not an official record