HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONCLUDES ITS ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVENTH SESSION

The Human Rights Committee this afternoon concluded its one hundred and eleventh session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Chile, Georgia, Ireland, Japan, Malawi and Sudan on how they are implementing the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The Committee’s concluding observations and recommendations on the six reports are available on its webpage for the session.

Nigel Rodley, Chairperson of the Committee, in concluding remarks, said that the session had been demanding and at times tense. The inputs and presence of civil society representatives, particularly from Ireland and Japan, had been impressive. Media attention to the work of the Committee was welcome, with many major media outlets picking up on the Committee’s dialogues and concluding observations. The closing press conference at the Palais des Nations, held the previous day, where the concluding observations had been made public, had been well attended. The unedited version of the concluding observations was now available at the Committee’s website.

Mr. Rodley stated that the following session would last an extra week, for the purpose of considering communications. The Committee would also have three and a half extra days at its March 2015 session, and an extra week in both July and in October 2015.

Also at its closing meeting, the Committee held a brief discussion on methods of work. Committee members discussed the organization of future sessions, now that additional funds had been assigned for the work of treaty bodies. If the duration of the sessions were to be extended, it would have significant repercussions on both members of the Committee and the Secretariat. Such an extension would need to be introduced gradually, for planning purposes. The option of introducing dual chambers would be considered later this year.

Committee member Victor Manuel Rodriguez-Rescia was appointed the Committee’s first Rapporteur on Reprisals.

The session was opened by Simon Walker, Chief of Section in the Human Rights Treaty Division at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. As well as reviewing six country reports, the Committee also held closed meetings with United Nations organizations, specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations and national human rights institutions on the situation in the countries that it was scheduled to review. The Committee discussed its methods of work and continued its second reading of its draft General Comment on Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which deals with the right to liberty and security of person and states that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or arbitrary detention. The Committee adopted a number of draft paragraphs, reviewed the text up to paragraph 41, and would continue its second reading of the draft General Comment at the October session.

The Committee also adopted its lists of issues on the reports of the following seven States parties, prior to consideration of their reports, scheduled for review at a future session: Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, France, Russia, Cyprus, Poland and Mexico. The Committee also considered 38 individual communications in closed meetings. It adopted seven inadmissibility decisions, 26 decisions on merits and declared five cases discontinued.

The Committee’s one hundred and twelfth session will be held from 7 to 31 October 2014, during which it will consider the reports of Burundi, Haiti, Israel, Malta, Montenegro and Sri Lanka. Those reports can be found here.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CT14/028E