Members of United Nations Treaty Bodies Discuss Individual Communication Procedures

Participants in the meeting Participants in the meeting

28 January 2019

At a meeting in Paris, members of United Nations (UN) human rights treaty bodies as well as staff from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, staff from regional human rights courts and academics discussed UN TBs individual communication procedures.

The meeting was organized by the Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR-Centre), with the support of the Open Society Justice Initiative and in partnership with the Geneva Academy and the Paris Human Rights Center.

Sharing Best Practices

The meeting aimed at sharing best practices and identify options to improve the way TBs handle individual communications.

Participants notably addressed the transparency and accessibility of the system and compared different approaches for proceeding communications

‘The fact that individuals can complain about a violation of their rights in an international arena brings real meaning to the rights contained in the human rights treaties. Currently, eight TBs are dealing with individual communication procedures: the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee against Torture, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)’ underlines Kamelia Kemileva, former Co-Coordinator of the Geneva Human Rights Platform.

‘They have all different working methods and ways to deal with these communications and it is therefore essential to bring them together to exchange what works and what does not work in order to find common grounds and, ultimately, improve the system’ she adds.

‘It is important to compare methods of work which might differ from one TB to the other in order to achieve better protection for petitioners’ she adds.

UN Treaty Bodies Individual Complaints Paris Meeting

Geneva Academy’s Research on the Issue

The Geneva Academy will publish a new report on TBs individual communications procedures in the spring, which will fill in a need for more research and analysis of this unique universal mechanism.

‘The research will notably look at the coherence of TBs’ jurisprudence, methods of work and the role of TBs’ secretariats’ explains Felix Kirchmeier, Co-Coordinator of the Geneva Human Rights Platform.

MORE ON THIS THEMATIC AREA

neurotech image News

Research Brief Evaluates the Human Rights Implications of Neurotechnology in Therapeutic and Commercial Applications

27 March 2025

Our research brief, Neurotechnology and Human Rights: An Audit of Risks, Regulatory Challenges, and Opportunities, examines the human rights implications of neurotechnology in both therapeutic and commercial applications.

Read more

GHRP EU News News

Bridging Geneva and Europe: advancing human rights in the digital age

2 June 2025

The Geneva Human Rights Platform has taken its work on strengthening the international human rights system to the heart of European policymaking.

Read more

Local Government Event

Enhancing National Reporting and Implementation of Human Rights through Coordinated Engagement at the Local and Regional Levels: The Role of NMIRFs

23 July 2025, 10:00-17:00

This seminar explores how national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up can better integrate the capacities, data, and experiences of local and regional governments in advancing human rights implementation and reporting.

Read more

AI for Good Event Event

AI for human rights: Smarter, faster, fairer monitoring

8 July 2025, 14:00-16:00

The event, as part of the AI for Good Summit 2025 will explore how AI tools can support faster data analysis, help uncover patterns in large datasets, and expand the reach of human rights work.

Read more

A general view of participants during of the 33nd ordinary session of the Human Rights Council. Training

The Universal Periodic Review and the UN Human Rights System: Raising the Bar on Accountability

10-14 November 2025

This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.

Read more

Town Hall Meeting Training

Localizing International Human Rights

8-10 October 2025

This training course, specifically designed for staff of city and regional governments, will explore the means and mechanisms through which local and regional governments can interact with and integrate the recommendations of international human rights bodies in their concrete work at the local level.

Read more

First annual conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform Project

The Annual Conference of the Geneva Human Rights Platform

Started in June 2019

Read more

Panel Discussion: Project

Treaty Body Members’ Platform

Started in January 2014

The Treaty Body Members’ Platform connects experts in UN treaty bodies with each other as well as with Geneva-based practitioners, academics and diplomats to share expertise, exchange views on topical questions and develop synergies.

Read more

Cover of the publication Publication

Briefing N° 25: Localizing Multilateralism

published on March 2025

Domenico Zipoli, Ludovica Chiussi Curzi, Kamelia Kemileva

Read more