Human Rights Committee

The Human Rights Committee is the body of 18 independent experts that monitors

implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its
State parties.

All States parties are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how civil
and political rights are being implemented. States must report initially one year after
acceding to the Covenant and then whenever the Committee requests. In
accordance with the Predictable Review Cycle, the Committee requests the
submission of the report based on an eight-year calendar. The Committee examines
each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in
the form of ‘concluding observations’.

In addition,

 Article 41 of the Covenant provides for the Committee to consider inter-state

complaints.
 The Optional Protocol to the Covenant gives the Committee competence to
examine individual complaints regarding alleged violations of the Covenant
by States parties to the Protocol.
 The Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant relates to the abolition of the
death penalty by States who have accepted the Protocol.

The Committee also publishes its interpretation of the content of human rights
provisions, known as general comments, on thematic issues or its methods of work.

The Committee meets in Geneva and normally holds three sessions per year.

Composition
The Committee has eighteen members elected by the States party to the ICCPR, from
a list of persons of “high moral character and recognized competence” (Art. 38 of
ICCPR). Each State can nominate two persons. The terms are four years long,
renewable once. The Committee may not include more than one national of the same
State, and consideration must be given to equitable geographic distribution of
membership and to the representation of “the different forms of civilization and of
the principal legal systems” (Art. 40).
The HRC’s headquarters are in Geneva, and its members meet three times a year. It
submits an annual report to the UN General Assembly and to the UN Economic and
Social Council, which is made public.
The Committee’s mandate is restricted to States party to the ICCPR (168 States
Parties) and is optional for States in many cases (unlike the activities, e.g., of the UN
Human Rights Council, which concern all UN Member States).
Mandate
The Human Rights Committee has three mechanisms that allow it to monitor the
ICCPR’s implementation:

1. It examines periodic country reports submitted by States Parties, which present the
national efforts that States have taken to promote the respect for human rights and
the Covenant in general. These reports are mandatory for all States.
2. Under optional Article 41 of the ICCPR, the HRC can receive and consider complaints
from parties alleging that another State Party is not fulfilling its obligations under the
Covenant—as long as both the alleging party and the alleged violator have declared
that they recognize the HRC’s competence with regard to such complaints.
3. In the case of States having ratified the first Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, the HRC
can also receive and consider communications from individuals who claim to be
victims of a violation by the participant State under whose jurisdiction they exist.

Country Reports
Country reports are the foundation of the UN system of human rights protection.
States that are party to the ICCPR “undertake to submit reports on the measures they
have adopted which give effect to the rights” set forth in the ICCPR. They must
submit such reports one year after the entry into force of the Covenant for that State,
and then every five years.
The reports are submitted to the UN Secretary-General, who transmits them to the
Committee for consideration. The Secretary-General may also, after consultation
with the Committee, transmit copies of relevant parts of the reports to the specialized
agencies of the UN whose field of competence covers given parts. After the
Committee has studied the reports, it hears the States concerned, through both
written and oral observations made by the State, explaining the measures it has
taken as well as any difficulties and delays in the implementation of the ICCPR.
Unlike the other two mechanisms used by the HRC, country reports are mandatory
for all 168 States Parties to the Covenant.
NGOs can submit written documents to the Committee and may go to its public
meetings. The questions that the Committee asks the States during the public
hearings may be based on information received from nongovernmental sources.

State Communications
A State Party may file a written communication alleging that another State Party is
violating its human rights obligations under the Covenant. This article (Art. 41) is
optional, meaning that it only applies to States Parties that have expressly recognized
the Committee’s competence to receive and consider State communications.
For the Committee to consider such a communication, two conditions must be met:
both the State submitting the communication and the one allegedly committing the
violations must have made the declaration accepting the Committee’s competence
with regard to such communications, and the injured persons must have exhausted
all available domestic remedies. However, in the case of the latter condition, this
“shall not be the rule where the application of the remedies is unreasonably
prolonged” (Art. 41.1.c). Furthermore, the Committee will only begin to examine a
State communication if the matter is not “adjusted to the satisfaction of both States
Parties concerned” within six months after the State that is the object of the
communication received the complaint (Art. 41.1.b).
The Committee must make its good offices available, with a view to finding a friendly
solution. After twelve months, during which time it can receive written and oral
explanation from the States concerned, the HRC submits a report to the States
concerned. The report either contains a brief statement presenting the facts and the
solution that was reached or, if no solution was reached, a brief statement including
the written and oral submissions made by the States concerned.
Finally, if a matter is not resolved to the satisfaction of the States concerned, the
Committee may, with the States’ prior consent, appoint an ad hoc Conciliation
Commission, which continues the work begun by the Committee (Art. 42). When it
has fully considered the matter, and in any event no later than twelve months after
having been apprised of the matter, the Conciliation Commission submits a report
for communication to the States concerned.
The State complaint mechanism does not work very well and is particularly limited,
because only the following forty-nine States have accepted the Committee’s
competence to receive and consider State complaints: Algeria, Argentina, Australia,
Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Congo,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, Gambia, Germany, Ghana,
Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland,
Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Senegal, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa,
Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United
States, and Zimbabwe.

Individual Communications
There is the possibility for individuals (or their legal representatives, but not juridical
persons such as members of NGOs) to transmit communications to the HRC with
regard to violations of the rights under the ICCPR by their State Party. However, the
HRC’s competence to receive individual petitions is limited to the 115 States that
have ratified the first Optional Protocol to the ICCPR—which was adopted and
entered into force along with the Covenant—establishing this option. ▸ List of States
Party to International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Conventions (no. 7:
First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR)
Several conditions must be met before the Committee can consider an individual
communication:

 the victim must be a national of a State party to the Protocol;

 the victim must have exhausted all available domestic remedies (Arts. 2 and 5 of
Protocol 1 to ICCPR);
 the communication must not be anonymous, must not abuse the right of submission
of such communications, and must not be incompatible with the provisions of the
Covenant (Art. 4); and
 the matter must not be under investigation under another procedure of international
investigation or settlement (Art. 5 of Protocol 1 to the ICCPR).
The procedure takes six months: the HRC first examines the complaint and then
requests explanations from the State concerned. The response is transmitted to the
victim. Following this exchange, the Committee forwards its “views” to the State
concerned and the individual (Art. 5.4 of Protocol 1 to the ICCPR). This decision has
no mandatory force of law.
The HRC is also responsible for monitoring the second Optional Protocol to the
ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. This Protocol was adopted by the
UN General Assembly on 15 December 1989 and entered into force on 11 July 1991. It
currently has eighty-one States Parties.
The 115 States that have ratified or accessed the first Optional Protocol to the ICCPR,
allowing individuals to send communications directly to the Committee.

The work of the Committee

No country’s record of protecting and promoting civil and political rights is perfect
and free from criticism. As a result, the Committee’s task is to encourage each State
party:

1. To maintain in place those laws, policies and practices that enhance the
enjoyment of these rights;
2. To withdraw or suitably amend those measures that are destructive or
corrosive of Covenant rights;
3. To take appropriate positive action when a State party has failed to act to
promote and protect these rights; and
4. To consider appropriately the effects in terms of the Covenant of new laws,
policies and practices that a State party proposes to introduce in order to
ensure that it does not regress in giving practical effect to Covenant rights.

One of the great strengths of the Committee is the moral authority it derives from the
fact that its membership represents all parts of the world. Instead of representing a
single geographical or national perspective, the Committee speaks with a global
voice.

The Committee’s work has a real effect in promoting the enjoyment of civil and
political rights in many countries, even though the cause and effect relationship is at
times difficult to identify. There are numerous instances of an individual complaint
leading to positive results for the individual concerned, be it in the form of a payment
of compensation, a commutation of a death sentence, a retrial, an investigation into
particular events, or a number of other remedies, in the State party concerned.

Over the years, the Committee’s work has resulted in many changes of law, policy
and practice, both at the general national level and in the context of individual cases.
In a direct sense, therefore, the Committee’s discharge of the monitoring functions
entrusted to it under the Covenant has improved the lives of individuals in countries
in all parts of the world. It is in this spirit that the Committee will continue to make its
work relevant and applicable to all States parties, and to strive for the enjoyment of
all civil and political rights guaranteed by the Covenant, in full and without
discrimination, by all people.