HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE OPENS EIGHTY-SECOND SESSION

18 October 2004



The Human Rights Committee, which reviews the implementation of the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its 153 States parties, this morning opened its eighty-second session by adopting its agenda.

In his introductory remarks, Committee Chairperson Abdelfattah Amor expressed condolences to the Swedish Government and the family of Margareta Wadstein (Sweden) who passed away after having been elected in September this year to serve as an Expert of the Committee.

The Chairperson drew attention to the Working Group established by the Commission on Human Rights which had been asked to elaborate a draft normative instrument to look into the question of forced disappearances and missing persons. The outcome of the Working Group could have repercussions for the Committee in that it had yet to be determined if the instrument to be elaborated would be a stand-alone convention or an additional Optional Protocol under the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and what body would be competent to monitor its the implementation. Should the outcome be an additional protocol to the Covenant, the Committee would be responsible for monitoring its implementation. However, it still remained a possibility that the Committee could be responsible for monitoring a stand-alone convention should that mechanism be pursued.

With regard to the Committee’s agenda, Markus Schmidt, the Secretary to the Committee, noted that the review of the country situation in Kenya, which had originally been scheduled to be considered during the current session, would be taken up during the Committee’s next session since the State party had only submitted its second periodic report some weeks ago. The Secretary added that the meeting to discuss the reports of the Special Rapporteur on follow-up mechanisms had also been re-scheduled from 5 November to 1 November during the current session.

Mr. Schmidt referred to the decision of the Committee to request the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) to submit to it an interim report on the situation of civil and political rights in Kosovo, indicating that the issue was currently pending on the decision of UNMIK’s Legal Adviser. However, it was determined that if a report was submitted it would be a complete and not an interim report.

Concerning recent developments, Mr. Schmidt indicated that Liberia had become the 153rd State party to the Covenant since the last session. Furthermore, 298 cases were currently pending under the Optional Protocol with regard to communications.

The Committee Secretary also provided a summary of the report of the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group of the eighty-second session of the Committee, Expert Ivan Shearer. The Working Group had before it a total of 23 draft recommendations on views under article 5 of the Optional Protocol, with the remaining eight being recommendations to declare communications inadmissible. In one case, the Working Group reached no agreement on whether the case should be declared inadmissible or whether it should go forward. Moreover, twenty-two recommendations would be transmitted to the Committee and the consideration of one communication had been postponed, pending the receipt of additional clarifications from the authors of the complaint.

When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m. this afternoon, it will begin its consideration of the fifth periodic report of Finland (CCPR/C/FIN/2003/5).