In view of the 2020 United Nations (UN) Treaty Body (TB) Review recommendations, we are conducting a series of pilot follow-up reviews (previously called focused reviews), carried out at the national level between the TBs reporting cycles. These reviews are designed to discuss how countries implement specific recommendations issued by UN TBs, bringing, in such a way, UN TBs closer to the regional and national levels – and ultimately closing the implementation gap.
The decision by United Nations (UN) treaty body (TB) Chairs to adopt ‘an eight-year review cycle for full reviews, with follow-up reviews in between’ highlights the necessity to enhance follow-up procedures, especially considering the extended interval between country interactions with TBs. Given this new 8-year cycle, it becomes crucial to explore how follow-up reviews could be undertaken at the national and regional levels, thereby making the UN TB system more relevant, responsive and closer to rights holders and duty bearers.
Our pilots aim to test this new format. The pilots carried out in Sierra Leone and Grenada tested the modalities for follow-up reviews at the national level. The most recent pilot in the Pacific region tested the modalities of a regional model for follow-up reviews.
