UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies

The treaties

The eight major UN human rights treaties/conventions are:

Check which UN human rights treaties your country has ratified. Chart of ratifications

The treaty bodies

States parties are required to submit regular reports to committees ('treaty bodies') established for the purpose of monitoring compliance with the obligations contained in each of these treaties. The treaty bodies are as follows:

Human Rights Committee (for ICCPR)
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (for ICESCR)
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (for ICERD)
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (for CEDAW)
Committee on the Rights of the Child (for CRC)
Committee Against Torture (for CAT)
Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (for MWC)
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Each treaty body meets usually 2 or 3 times a year (most of them in Geneva), and reviews several State party reports in each session.

NGO participation

In addition to the formal reports from States parties, the treaty-monitoring bodies also receive - either formally or informally - material from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in order to increase their understanding of the situation in a given country. NGO representatives may also attend the meetings of the treaty-monitoring bodies, and in some cases may even make verbal statements to the Committee members. Upon completing each review of a State party report, a treaty monitoring body issues 'concluding observations' or recommendations to the State party concerned.

Individual complaints

Apart from the regular review of State party reports, some of the treaty bodies also have the mandate to receive and consider individual or group complaints about specific violations of rights enshrined in the relevant treaty. This is so in the case of the Human Rights Committee (civil and political rights); the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women; the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; and the Committee Against Torture - though the State party concerned must have made a specific declaration or ratified a special 'optional protocol' in order for this mandate to be applicable in relation to that country.

Why the treaty bodies?

Experience has shown that the treaty-monitoring bodies are potentially a very effective entry-point for NGOs to engage directly with UN human rights mechanisms, and impact the outcomes of such processes. Moreover, the quality of the concluding observations/recommendations issued by the treaty bodies is directly related to the quality of the information received, and many of the treaty bodies have made it clear that they rely heavily on civil society to provide them with information so as to form a comprehensive picture of the situation in a given country. Further, the treaty bodies also rely heavily on civil society to promote implementation of the concluding observations/recommendations at the national level.

Sessions

For information on the sessions of the respective treaty bodies - and countries listed in each of those sessions - please click on the following links:

Human Rights Committee (civil and political rights)

Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Committee on the Rights of the Child

Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Committee Against Torture

Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers

Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities