06/02/2020

Implementation of Treaty Bodies’ Recommendations: What Lessons Can We Learn from the UPR?

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) has produced  a number of new initiatives at national level to implement recommendations aimed at improving human rights enjoyment. Valuable lessons can be drawn from this practice and can be applied to the work of the Treaty Body (TB) System

Several challenges confront the Treaty Body (TB) System. Main points of concern relate to its effectiveness, efficiency, coordination and accessibility. Implementation of international human rights treaties and related TB recommendations and decisions is jeopardized by a number of factors, including states’ non-compliance, the weakness of the diverse follow-up procedures adopted by Committees, lack of access to TBs’ work, and their low visibility. In the context of the upcoming review of UN treaty bodies (TBs) by the UN General Assembly (GA), the Research Brief, The Universal Periodic Review Mid-Term Reporting Process: Lessons for the Treaty Bodies, seeks to propose ways to improve the effectiveness of the UN treaty bodies by drawing lessons from the mid-term report of the UPR.

The paper written by Miloon Kothari, President of UPR Info and former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing,  outlines the different methodologies and monitoring tools that the UPR process has produced and  that can be of immense use to TBs in the follow-up work of their Concluding Observations. These methodologies and tools can serve as guides in developing mid-course assessments and reinforce the TB COBs by facilitating the tracking of their implementation. Among the good practices developed through the UPR, the research paper highlighted the development of national action plans for human rights, the creation of stakeholder and multi-stakeholder mechanisms involving governments, NHRIs, parliaments and CSOs or the development of matrices and tools to track the implementation status of UPR recommendations.

To read the full paper, click here.