The United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System - Essay Example

Sur Human Rights Law Introduction: One of the biggest achievements reflected from the efforts of the international community is the formation of human rights treaty body system. Legal norms are taken care of by the treaty bodies established by human rights treaties. There are legal commitments based on these treaties depending on which, State parties are supposed to report to the treaty bodies that are in charge of over viewing the legislations and policies. With advice from them, the States can develop and improve their compliances with the human rights (Pillay 8). United Nations Human Rights refer to the rights that are natural for all human beings irrespective of the individual’s status, race, color, sex, language, origin, or any other status. These rights are entitled to all individuals without any discrimination. These rights are guaranteed and taken care of by the law. By the International Human Rights Law, there are obligations for different Governments such that have to take actions and measure in particular ways or in certain cases they are restricted to act in certain manners, as well as to promote the rights of humans and allow individuals with their fundamental freedom and liberty (What are human rights?). The present study focuses on the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System, with a critical overview on their achievements for the international protection of human rights and the challenges that still remain. United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System: The human rights treaty bodies comprise of certain autonomous experts who are in charge of monitoring the accomplishment of the core international human rights treaties. It is their responsibility to supervise whether every State is following the rules and policies in regard to the human rights obligated for the individuals. The independent experts constitute ten treaty bodies that are nominated by parties of the States and are in charge for the implementation of the human rights. The treaties that are monitored include the Human Rights Committee; Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women; Committee against Torture; Committee on the Rights of the Child; Committee on Migrant Workers; Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Committee on Enforced Disappearances; and The Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Monitoring the core international human rights treaties). Strengthening the UN Human Rights Treaty Body System: The core international human rights create obligations for the States to promote human rights for all individuals irrespective of any discriminatory factors among them. If a particular country consents to the treaty, then it has to comply with the obligations of the human rights. The main functions of the treaty bodies include supervising on the implementation of the treaties by the State Parties. Office of the High Commission for Human Rights or OHCHR is the main entity of the United Nations that provides support to the treaty bodies for human rights and also monitors the implementation of the promotion of the rights treaties. OHCHR achieves this function with the help of its Human Rights Treaties Division (Pillay 16-17). The initiation of the human rights treaties body had taken place in the year 2004. Over the years the size of the body has doubled with new treaty bodies being developed. Also new bodies for complaints of individuals have been initialed and implemented. Memberships in these bodies have increased significantly with a total number of independent experts of the treaty bodies being 172 in the year 2012. Meetings are also now held frequently reporting meetings for around 74 weeks in the year 2012. Another positive aspect of the treaty bodies is that ratification of the States under the international human rights treaties has increased (Pillay 16-17). 927 ratifications were reported in the year 2000 that increased to 1586 ratifications in the year 2012. Considering all the treaties of the international human rights and the optional protocols associated with them, the total number of ratifications comes to 2000. However it has been obtained that there is a mismatch in between this increase in the number of ratifications and the proportional increase in the number reports presented by the State parties. The relative increase in the number of the reports presented by the States imply that there has been a relative decrease in the reporting conformity over a particular period of time, say a year (Pillay 16-17). United Nations need to strengthen the human rights treaties bodies particularly in order to have greater rights of protection for the human rights through reforms. The UN General Assembly holds meetings in this regard to discuss and implement ways to achieve protection of human rights effectively. Reforms are necessary to ensure that the rights are protected effectively and hence make this a highly crucial step for the UN and the States. There are several issues that are essential for discussion by the Assembly that include ensuring that stakeholders are able to access the view the treaty bodies based on their needs, the nomination and election of the treat bodies take place responsibly by the experts, and the reporting processes are made effective (UN must act to strengthen human rights treaty body system). Achievements for the International Protection of Human Rights: Twenty human rights achievements have been reported as far as the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System is concerned. These include (The 20th Anniversary of OHCHR – 20 human rights achievements): (1) Rights to economy, society, culture, civil, and politics along with the right to development are acknowledged as worldwide, inseparable, and communally strengthening rights of all individuals, without dissimilarity; (2) Human rights have become fundamental to the worldwide discussion on the subject of harmony, protection and progress; (3) The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights has led to the development of new standards for human rights and significant improvement has been achieved in the execution of international human rights treaties; (4) Supplementary open protections in international law currently subsist in enveloping children, women, victims of torture, persons with disabilities, and provincial institutions among others. In case of contentions of violations, human beings have the rights to convey grievances to the international human rights treaty bodies; (5) Rights of women are now recognized as fundamental human rights. Discrimination and acts of violence against women are most essentially overviewed by the discussions of the human rights; (6) There is international agreement stating that grave breaches of human rights should not remain without punishments. It is the right of the victims to assert for justice, even if they include within processes to re-establish the regulation of law subsequent to disagreements. The International Criminal Court brings justice against the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humankind; (7) There has been a standard modification in the acknowledgment of the human rights of people with disabilities, particularly and critically, their right to successful involvement in all areas of life on an equivalent foundation with others; (8) There is currently a global structure that is familiar with the challenges encountered by migrants and their families guaranteeing their rights and those of migrants who lack documents; (9) The rights of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals have been positioned on the global plan; (10) The difficulties encountered by native people and minorities are progressively more being recognized and dealt with by the processes of international human rights, particularly concerning their right to non-discrimination; (11) The Human Rights Council, set up in 2006, has brought into concern the fundamental and responsive issues and its Universal Periodic Review, established at the same time, has enabled countries to appraise the records of human rights of each other, make references and offer support for development; (12) Independent human rights experts and bodies supervise and examine from the perspective of a theme or country-specific perspective. All rights concerning all regions are taken into consideration by them producing insistent public reports that augment responsibility and assist in fighting impunity; (13) States and the United Nations are aware of the essential role of civil society in the progression of human rights. Civil society has been in the front position of promotion and protection of the human rights, indicative of difficulties and challenges and suggesting ground-breaking solutions, approaching for new standards, contributing to public policies, offer influential power to the powerless, building wide-reaching awareness about rights and freedoms and serving to build sustainable change on the ground; (14) There is increased consciousness and rising demand from people across the globe for superior lucidity and answerability from government and for the right to get involved completely in public life; (15) National human rights institutions have become more self-governing and commanding and have an influential authority on supremacy. One or more of institutions of this form have been established by over a third of all countries across the world. (16) The United Nations Fund for Victims of Torture has helped several thousands of victims of torment to restore their lives. Similarly, the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, with its exclusive approach focused on victims, has offered civilized, officially permitted, and financial aid to individuals whose human rights have been violated through more than 500 projects; (17) Victims of trafficking are at present looked upon as unrestricted to the complete choice of human rights and are no longer professed to be criminals; (18) An increasing harmony is budding that business enterprises have responsibilities of human rights; (19) In the present times, States have guidelines to follow which hold up freedom of expression at the same time as defining where speech makes up a nonstop stimulation to detestation or aggression; and (20) The body of international human rights law persists to develop and get bigger, to deal with rising issues related to human rights such as the rights of older persons, the right to the truth, a clean environment, water and sanitation, and food (The 20th Anniversary of OHCHR – 20 human rights achievements). It can thus be realized that over the years the UN Human Rights Treaty Body System has considered several important issues in relation to the protection of human rights and has succeeded to a great extent. With increasing participation of countries and states and increasing membership of the treaty bodies, this has been possible to achieve effectively, with further developments and expansions in the processes still continuing at large. However, there are still certain challenges encountered by the system that also need to be considered essentially and measures considered to overcome them as early as possible for the protection of human rights to get implemented most effectively for all human beings. Challenges Remaining for the UN Human Rights Treaty Body System: The most significant challenges remain with the non-compliance of the treaty bodies with obligations of reporting. While on one hand the number of ratifications is found to increase, on the other hand, reporting and implementation obligations are creating difficulties for the system, as several reports are not reported on time. Another challenge is raised as a result of the backlogs considering the reports of the State parties and the complaints from individuals. Owing to backlogs, current reports of State parties are often required to wait for the earlier reports to get worked on by the system. Difficulties have also been raised with increasing documentations resultant with the increasing growth of the system. The coherence of the system has also been challenged by the growth of the system, as all the treaties have their own scope and other factors of discrimination. A final challenge is with the resources that lag behind the development and advancement of the human rights treaty system (Pillay 20-26). Conclusion: It can be concluded from the above study that the UN Human Rights Treaty Body System has developed over the years and focused more on enhancing the protection of human rights of all individuals across the globe. Several achievements have been obtained by the system over the years with increasing growth of the system. However, there are certain challenges facing the treaty system that still needs to be overcome in order to make the system most effective. References “Monitoring the core international human rights treaties.” OHCHR. OHCHR, 2013. Web. 7 October 2013 . Pillay, Navanethem. “Strengthening the United Nations human rights treaty body system- A report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.” OHCHR. OHCHR, 2012. Web. 7 October 2013 . “The 20th Anniversary of OHCHR – 20 human rights achievements.” OHCHR. OHCHR, 2013. Web. 9 October 2013 . “UN must act to strengthen human rights treaty body system.” ISHR. ISHR, 2013. Web. 8 October, 2013 . “What are human rights?” OHCHR. OHCHR, 2013. Web. 7 October 2013 . Read More