HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE DISCUSSES METHODS OF WORK

The Human Rights Committee discussed its methods of work this afternoon, focusing on preparatory steps in view of elaborating a General Comment on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the right to life. It adopted a document with questions that should be discussed during a half-day General Discussion on the right to life, which the Committee will hold in its next session in July in preparation of the General Comment. It also discussed a proposal to establish an accelerated process for handling individual communications.

Opening the discussion, Fabian Omar Salvioli, Committee Chairperson, said that last October, the Committee had decided to elaborate a new General Comment, its thirty-sixth, on the right to life. Committee Experts Yuval Shany and Nigel Rodley had been tasked with presenting a document on this issue.

Mr. Shany, presenting the document which included questions that should be discussed, said that national human rights institutions, civil society, academics and others would be consulted in the framework of elaborating this General Comment in a half-day General Discussion next July. A first draft of the General Comment would be presented to the Committee in October.

Mr. Rodley said the document they had prepared was not a first draft of the General Comment, but it served as a basis for the half-day General Discussion to be held next July on the right to life, in preparation of the General Comment.

Issues in the document included the scope and nature of the duty to respect and ensure the right of life; meaning of “inherent right”; applicability of the article to the unborn and other forms of human existence; and the relationship between the right to life and the right to die. A list of cross-cutting issues were also listed.

In the discussion, Committee Experts congratulated the Rapporteurs for such a comprehensive document which seemed to cover all the issues. Experts discussed the nature of the document; whether it was too academic instead of practical and whether some issues would fall into a philosophical and endless discussion. After having clarified some methodological issues, the Committee approved the initial draft document with a few amendments.

Other working methods dealt with were the guidelines on the length of the Committee’s annual report, after the General Assembly had fixed a maximum of 10,700 words for such reports.

Mr. Shany also introduced a proposal to establish an accelerated process for handling individual communications of a similar nature. He said the aim was to save valuable time and to ensure higher degrees of consistency in handling similar communications. Committee Experts welcomed the proposal but raised several issues and requested clarification on some points. Further discussions on the proposal would be held in the next session.

The Human Rights Committee will next meet in public on Monday, 30 March at 10 a.m., when it will continue discussing its methods of work .


For use of the information media; not an official record

CT15/009E