HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OPENS ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH SESSION
The Human Rights Committee this afternoon opened its one hundred and twenty-ninth session in an online format, hearing a statement from Ibrahim Salama, Chief of the Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee also adopted the agenda and programme of work for the session.
In his opening remarks, Mr. Salama said the Committee’s discussions were taking place in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic, and restrictions on freedom of assembly in countries across the world, as well as protests in several countries following the death of George Floyd, had raised multiple and intersecting challenges and opportunities in relation to the right to peaceful assembly. As the global context informing law and practice in relation to freedom of peaceful assembly changed with significant speed and force, ensuring the quality and visibility of the Committee's General Comment was vital.
Yuval Shany, Committee Vice-Chairperson, said the Committee would strive to minimize the protection gap, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. While Committee Experts would not spare efforts to discharge their mandate in the current situation, they believed holding meetings virtually should not become the “new normal”, as the inability to meet in person proved a significant impediment to their work.
Photini Pazartizis, Committee Expert, presented the report of the Working Group on communications and said that at its last session held from 22 to 24 June, it had adopted 41 draft communications. Three draft communications were pending. The Working Group had noted violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 16 communications it had declared 1 case of non-violation.
The Committee adopted the report of the Working Group on communications.
The Committee’s one hundred and twenty-ninth session will be held from 29 June to 24 July 2020, during which it will continue the second reading of the draft General Comment No. 37 on article 21 of the Covenant on the right of peaceful assembly. Because of COVID-19, the examination of the reports of States parties has been postponed to future sessions.
All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage . Summaries of the Committee’s public meetings in English and French will be available on the Meetings Summaries page of the United Nations Office at Geneva website, while the webcast can be viewed at UN Web TV.
The Committee will meet in public on Tuesday, 30 June to continue the second reading of the draft General Comment No. 37 on article 21 of the Covenant on the right of peaceful assembly.
Opening Remarks
YUVAL SHANY, Committee Vice-Chairperson, standing in for the Committee Chairperson, Ahmed Amin Fathalla, said this was the first time ever that the Human Rights Committee was meeting online, and this was due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IBRAHIM SALAMA, Chief, Human Rights Treaties Branch, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , said that since the suspension of the last session in March, this Committee had demonstrated how treaty bodies could advance their crucial work through creative working methods. The Working Group on individual communications had just concluded on Friday its one-week session through the online platform, after having met for six hours a day and considered 44 draft individual communications. Moreover, during the inter-sessional period, the Committee had adopted a substantive statement on derogations from the Covenant in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, reminding States parties of the requirements and conditions laid down in article 4 of the Covenant and explained in the Committee’s General Comments, particularly General Comment No. 29 (2001) on states of emergency.
Turning to the 2020 review of the treaty body system, Mr. Salama noted that it had been launched on 2 June by the co-facilitators, the Permanent Representatives of Morocco and Switzerland to the United Nations in New York. The treaty body Chairs and focal points had held an informal online meeting from 2 to 5 June to discuss the 2020 review of the treaty body system and innovative working methods and substantive input of treaty bodies in relation to COVID-19. The Chairs had agreed that the innovative approaches and the partial shift to on-line work achieved by treaty bodies in the COVID-19 context had been positive steps forward. However, they had highlighted that the necessary prerequisites for online meetings must be met, including a secure online platform with simultaneous interpretation and the provision of accessibility for persons with disabilities such as captioning and sign-language interpretation.
The co-facilitators would hold dialogues with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, treaty bodies, civil society, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders to seek their contributions. This would be an opportunity for the voice of treaty bodies to be heard, including on the issue of adequate financial resources for the Committee to be able to carry out its mandated activities. A non-exhaustive list of issues that could be used as a guide in formulating the submissions had already been sent to stakeholders. The co-facilitators were planning to draft the report and outline recommendations to the current President of the General Assembly during the month of August.
Because of the health risks and travel restrictions related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Office, in coordination with the United Nations Office at Geneva, had announced that physical meetings requiring the travel of participants will be suspended until the end of this summer. As it could not be predicted how the situation would evolve, the treaty bodies had to be prepared for all possible scenarios, including the worst-case scenario that no more in-person meetings could be convened this year. In addition, the current liquidity crisis facing the United Nations was likely to exacerbate this situation. The persistent late and underpayment of assessed contributions had reached the stage where the continuation of activities was being disrupted by the lack of resources. In this regard, he thanked the Committee for its genuine commitment to keep the treaty body system functioning. The pandemic should not paralyze the treaty body system when it was needed most.
The Committee’s discussions were taking place in unprecedented times. The COVID-19 pandemic, and restrictions on freedom of assembly in countries across the world, as well as protests in several countries, following the death of George Floyd, had raised multiple and intersecting challenges and opportunities in relation to the right to peaceful assembly. As the global context informing law and practice in relation to freedom of peaceful assembly changed with significant speed and force, ensuring the quality and visibility of the Committee's General Comment was vital.
YUVAL SHANY, Committee Vice-Chairperson, said the Committee would strive to minimize the protection gap, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. While Committee Experts would not spare efforts to discharge their mandate in the current situation, they believed holding meetings virtually should not become the “new normal”, as the inability to meet in person proved a significant impediment to their work.
Adoption of the Agenda and Programme of Work and the Report of the Working Group on Communications
Committee Experts adopted the agenda.
PHOTINI PAZARTIZIS, Committee Expert, presented the report of the Working Group on communications and said that at its last session held from 22 to 24 June, it had adopted 41 draft communications. Three draft communications were pending. The Working Group had noted violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 16 communications ; it had found one case of non-violation.
The Committee adopted the report of the Working Group on communications.
CCPR20.011E