HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE DISCUSSES METHODS OF WORK AND CLOSES ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIRST SESSION
The Human Rights Committee this afternoon concluded its one hundred and twenty-first session after adopting concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, Australia, Jordan, Mauritius, Cameroon and Romania, which it considered during the session. The Committee also adopted the progress report on follow-up to views.
The Committee discussed its methods of work and decided to extend the periodicity of reporting by States parties from one to two years, and to reduce the follow-up report round from two to one. The Committee would consider the second follow-up report only in appropriate cases. Finally, the Committee decided to discontinue the follow-up procedure for States parties pending evaluation.
With respect to the follow-up to views, the Committee decided to no longer apply grading for the publication of views. As for the guarantees of non-repetition, grades would apply only to measures specified in the views, and the follow-up report would contain only the information about ready cases.
Yuji Iwasawa, Committee Chairperson, said the one hundred and twenty-first session was a very productive one, with the adoption of concluding observations on seven States, which had been made public on the session’s page. The Committee had decided on 53 individual communications, out of which 18 cases had been decided on merits, three cases declared inadmissible, and 32 had been discontinued. For the first time, the Committee had held one oral hearing on a case. The Committee had also started the second reading of draft General Comment No. 36 on the right to life, and held an informal meeting with States with respect to the implementation of resolution 68/268. Mr. Iwasawa thanked the secretariat for their hard work, in light of the shortage of staff.
The one hundred and twenty-second session of the Committee will take place from 12 March to 6 April 2018 when it will consider the periodic reports of Belarus, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hungary, Lebanon and Liberia.
For use of the information media; not an official record
CT/17/45E