HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OPENS ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTEENTH SESSION

The Human Rights Committee this morning opened its one hundred and fifteenth session, hearing an address by Ibrahim Salama, Director of the Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee adopted its agenda and programme of work, and heard and adopted a report from its Working Group on Individual Communications.

Opening the session Ibrahim Salama, Director of the Human Rights Treaties Division, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, representing High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, said since the Committee’s last session in July 2015 the international community’s failure to cope with the refugee crisis had reached epic proportions. Today one hundred million people required humanitarian assistance and 60 million people had been forced to flee their homes or countries. Who could not agree with the High Commissioner that “the people most responsible for this migration and misery were those leaders who had failed to uphold human rights, and robbed their people of hope”, asked Mr. Salama. He said the Committee and its participants had a role to play in the drama, and during this session would both review and adopt lists of issues on States where the plight of migrants and refugees was of grave concern.

Mr. Salama then recapped events of interest to the Committee since its last session. In September the General Assembly had adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which included 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development, several of which focused on the human rights components of development. The Agenda also placed the struggle against inequalities, discrimination, and exclusion at its heart with two dedicated goals on combatting discrimination and inequalities, and a strong commitment to disaggregate data along multiple axes of discrimination. That was where the information provided under the treaty body system could play an important part, said Mr. Salama. In addition, the anticipated review and accountability architecture, as recommended by the High Commissioner, should establish strong links to existing human rights monitoring mechanisms. Mr. Salama encouraged Committee Experts and participants to consider ways in which their work could link to the important Agenda.

Finally, Mr. Salama asked Committee Experts to give effect to the San Jose Guidelines against intimidation or reprisals, which were adopted in June 2014, and which set out the procedures available to the treaty bodies to respond to acts of intimidation or reprisals against individuals or groups who cooperated with the Committees. Such acts were becoming more severe and varied, which was a worrying development. Mr. Salama also highlighted the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica’s call for academic institutions around the world to consider options for further strengthening of the human rights treaty body system. Such reflection would build on the successfully concluded treaty body strengthening process, and would form a timely contribution to the General Assembly’s 2020 review, he added.

Finally, Mr. Salama highlighted that two United Nations Covenants – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - would be 50 years old in 2016. A series of celebrations for that landmark anniversary would be launched by OHCHR on Human Rights Day (10 December 2015) as well as a series of promotional materials to raise awareness of the two Covenants, including easy-to-read versions of their texts and a video demonstrating the impact of the Committees’ work.

In the ensuing discussion Experts spoke about the migration crisis and the need for an administrative and financial plan for migration, with one Expert saying the issue was being politically manipulated for election purposes and there was a need for analysis during the country reviews in order to resolve that.

The Working Group on Individual Communications then presented its report to the Committee. During a session last week the Working Group had examined 35 cases, of which one was considered admissible, six were considered inadmissible, and the other 28 cases recommended on the basis of merit. The Working Group also decided to submit a recommendation to amend the language in the of the paragraph of the Covenant concerning reparations.

The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. today to begin its consideration of the second report of Greece (CCPR/C/GRC/2).

During its one hundred and fifteenth session, the Committee will also consider the reports of Austria, Benin, Greece, Iraq, the Republic of Korea, San Marino and Suriname. The programme of work can be found in the background press release.


For use of the information media; not an official record

CT15/029E