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Concerns and Recommendations - Jan 31, Letter
HRW Statement to the UNCHR

Joint statement by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch

Item 20 - Rationalization of the Work of the Commission
Delivered: 19 April 2000
After deliberating one year, the inter-sessional open-ended Working Group on Enhancing the Effectiveness of the Mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights (the Working Group) has failed to deliver on its mandate, namely to meaningfully strengthen the system of special procedures. It did not provide an adequate response to the serious problems faced by many rapporteurs: the lack of adequate support by the UN and of effective cooperation by many States. The report is a missed opportunity.

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We regret that the Working Group has not adopted many of the more detailed and forceful recommendations which the Commission's Bureau presented to the Commission, and which recognized the need for substantive change. Unfortunately, the Working Group's report makes few recommendations. Most of them are weak or have become meaningless as a result of a self-imposed search for consensus.

The Working Group's proposals on states' cooperation with the special procedures lack substance: they simply request states to explain their reasons for failing to cooperate with the special procedures. We fully endorse the observations made by the Bureau in its report to the 55th session of the Commission that "the essential foundation on which the effectiveness of the Commission and its mechanisms rests is the responsibility of all governments to cooperate fully with these mechanisms". Yet many of them fail to do so. Those states that question their obligation to cooperate with the special procedures demonstrate their reluctance to uphold and protect universal human rights. The Commission should:

  • call upon all states to extend open invitations to special procedures to visit their countries at the start of Commission sessions

  • ensure that the UN Secretary-General is informed of any state that persistently refuses to cooperate with the special procedures.

The Working Group recommends that time be made available to debate reports of the special procedures during the Commission. This is a welcome move, but the report fails to identify how this important issue should be addressed. We recommend that the Commission:

  • creates adequate time and space for a thorough discussion during the session, through meetings with a set agenda, of special procedures' reports in which States, UN agencies and programmes, and NGO's discuss their contents and the implementation of the recommendations previously made.

Special procedures can only be as effective as the support provided by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) permits them to be. The number of new mandates created by the Commission has risen by more than one third since 1995. Yet despite the sharp increase, there has been no comparable rise in resources from the regular budget. In fact, they have declined in this period. Voluntary contributions can provide temporary relief, but are no alternative to stable support from the regular budget. This alone enables the recruitment of professionals and the planning of work programs on a long-term basis that is so urgently required. The Commission should:

  • ask the High Commissioner to provide an assessment of the resource requirements for professional long term support to the special procedures;
  • urge its Member States to instruct their delegations at the Fifth Committee at the General Assembly to vote for the allocation of the necessary resources from the regular budget.

    A revamped Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, composed of genuine experts selected for their expertise on human rights, has a major role to play as a non-political, expert body to assist the Commission in carrying out specific studies. In an important and innovative recent development, which fills a gap not addressed by the Commission, the Sub-Commission has mentioned countries in thematic resolutions. We deplore the proposal to deprive the Sub-Commission of this important opportunity. Furthermore, the Working Group conspicuously failed to set time limits for the Sub-Commission's members, which is a prerequisite for the rejuvenation of this body that is required.

    Mr. Chairman,

    The weakness of the recommendations in the Working Group's report demonstrate once more the lack of political will on the part of many Commission members to genuinely commit themselves to strengthening the entire system of special procedures. Radical steps are needed if the Commission's special procedures are to survive as a cornerstone of the UN's system to promote and protect human rights.