Human Rights Committee closes one hundred and fourteenth session

ROUNDUP

24 July 2015

Adopts Concluding Observations on Reports of Venezuela, United Kingdom, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Spain, Canada, Uzbekistan and France

The Human Rights Committee today concluded its one hundred and fourteenth session after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Venezuela, United Kingdom, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Spain, Canada, Uzbekistan and France.

The concluding observations and recommendations on the seven country reports that were considered during the session are available here.

Fabiàn Omar Salvioli, Committee Chairperson, in his closing remarks, said that with their extra week of work, the Committee had made good progress on their backlog. The Committee adopted concluding observations on the seven country reports, and had adopted 32 out of 34 communications presented to it. It found violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 17 of these cases, and in six it concluded that no violation had taken place. Four cases were declared inadmissible and five cases were discontinued. The Committee also had a successful half day discussion in preparation for the draft General Comment on the right to life, and held the biannual informal meeting with States parties.

Also during the public closing meeting, the Committee continued its discussion on its methods of work and the periodicity of States appearing before the Committee. Committee Expert Yuji Iwasawa said he proposed to rectify the imbalance or disadvantage for States parties that chose the simplified reporting procedure over the traditional reporting procedure, so that the time between the presentation of the report and its review by the Committee became the same. Presently, States choosing the simplified reporting procedure appeared sooner and more frequently before the Committee than those using the traditional reporting procedure. After an extended discussion, the Committee agreed to Mr. Iwasawa’s proposal, with slight modification on the issue of flexibility.

The Committee’s one hundred and fifteenth session will be held from 19 October to 6 November 2015, during which it will consider the reports of Austria, Benin, Greece, Iraq, Republic of Korea, San Marino and Suriname. Those reports and related documentation can be found on the Committee’s webpage for the session.

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For use of the information media; not an official record