Treaty body strengthening

The treaty bodies constitute a fundamental pillar of the international human rights protection system. The treaty body system has grown significantly since the establishment of the first treaty body in 1969. This growth has greatly enhanced human rights protection.

However, the growth of the treaty body system does not come without challenges. Some of these challenges include:

• A growing backlog of State reports, individual communications, and urgent actions;
• Insufficient compliance by States parties with their reporting obligations;
• Diverging working methods among the treaty bodies.

Achievements

Since the adoption of resolution 68/268 and the strengthening work that followed it, the treaty body system has seen a growing engagement by States. Ratifications of treaties and their optional protocols have steadily increased.

Thanks to the efforts of the treaty bodies, good progress has been made in expanding the simplified reporting procedure and coordinating between treaty bodies. Their shared vision is already yielding concrete results in terms of accessibility and predictability.

In 2022, the main achievements of treaty bodies ranged from the Chairs’ agreement on treaty body strengthening to the adoption of 133 concluding observations and 285 views on individual communications.

Ongoing discussions about treaty body strengthening

In addressing challenging issues, strengthening horizontal contacts between treaty bodies and constant updating and alignment of their working methods are crucial. This will facilitate focused and coherent findings and eventually increase the combined impact of the system.

The treaty bodies most recently worked on a co-facilitation process, which concluded in 2020 with a report and recommendations. View report page 

UN Secretary-General's reports on the status of the Human Rights treaty body system

• Fourth biennial report by the Secretary General
• Third biennial report by the Secretary General
• Second biennial report by the Secretary General
• First biennial report by the Secretary General

Resolution 68/268 comprised two review mechanisms:

• A biennial report by the UN Secretary-General on the state of the treaty body system;
• An overall review of the effectiveness of the measures taken pursuant to resolution 68/268 no later than 2020.

Resolution 73/162 adopted on 17 December 2018:

• Requested that the UN Secretary-General submits his third biennial report in January 2020 in advance of the 2020 review of the treaty body system.

Resolution 75/174 adopted by the General Assembly on 16 December 2020:

• Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its seventy-seventh session a report on the status of the human rights treaty body system

History of the treaty body strengthening process

Since 1988, the UN has undertaken four major initiatives to enhance the effectiveness of the treaty body system:

1. Independent Expert Philip Alston’s reports (1988-1996)
2. The UN Secretary-General’s proposal of a single report (2002 – 2006)
3. High Commissioner Arbour’s proposal of a unified standing treaty body (2006)
4. The treaty body strengthening process, which resulted in General Assembly resolution 68/268 (2009-2014) and the first biennial report, followed by resolution 73/162 and the second and third biennial reports
5. Co-facilitation process (2020)