Human Rights Committee opens one hundred and sixteenth session

GENEVA (7 March 2016) - The Human Rights Committee this morning opened its one hundred and sixteenth session, hearing an address by Ibrahim Salama, Director of the Human Rights Treaties Division of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee adopted its agenda and programme of work, as well as the report from its Working Group on Individual Communications.

Fabian Omar Salvioli, President of the Human Rights Committee, opened the session by stating that that was a very important meeting for the community of human rights as they were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It showed the interdependence and the indivisibility of all rights, which was a challenge. Some of the other challenges included the rise of racism and xenophobia, as well as the implications of the international law on human rights and their legal interpretation. Recalling that the following day the world would mark the International Women’s Day, Mr. Salvioli stated that women’s rights and the gender perspective had to be included in the work of the treaty bodies.

Mr. Ibrahim Salama, Director of the Human Rights Treaties Division at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that 2016 was an important year – a year to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the two Covenants, as well as a year to reflect. On the one hand, growing inequalities and the clawback of rights in response to migration and terrorism threatened the freedom from fear and want that underpinned the Covenants. On the other hand, the agreement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda the previous year gave room for hope for broader implementation of the Covenants in coming years. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had made the fiftieth anniversary one of its main campaigns for 2016. Mr. Salama then outlined the planned events and activities marking the anniversary.

The commemoration had begun with a launch on 16 December 2015 of a photo exhibition at the Palais des Nations, depicting images of people and evoking the various rights in the two Covenants. A number of official commemorations were planned in Geneva and New York throughout the year. On 1 March, the Human Rights Council had commemorated the anniversary with a High-Level Panel, focusing on the theme of “universality, indivisibility, interdependence and inter-relatedness of human rights.” Many speakers had underlined the interdependence of the two Covenants and the complementarity of the work of the two Committees, emphasizing the need to bring the two Committees closer. On 23 June 2016, the two Committees would hold a joint plenary meeting, while the General Assembly would commemorate the anniversary by devoting one plenary session of its seventy-first session to the theme. Finally, there were plans to organize an event on 16 December 2016 - the actual fiftieth anniversary – in New York.

In addition to those official celebrations, there were also plans to raise awareness of the Covenants with a wider audience beyond Geneva and New York, with a particular focus on raising awareness with children and youth. A microsite on the celebrations had been launched on 22 February. It included information on the celebrations, a list of upcoming events, as well as some promotional materials. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had prepared fact sheets on the Covenants and the two Committees, an easy-to-read version of the two Covenants, a pocket sized listing of the rights in both Covenants, and videos demonstrating the impact of the work of the Committees. Mr. Salama hoped that a major contribution this year would be to reassert the indivisibility and interdependence of the two Covenants, and to reaffirm their relevance now and for the next fifty years.

The Working Group on Individual Communications then presented its report to the Committee. The Working Group, composed of eight members, under the chairmanship of Konstantine Vardzelashvili, had met during the previous week, and had examined 31 cases. It recommended two of those to the Plenary Session of the Committee to consider as admissible, eight as inadmissible, and proposed that the plenary session of the Human Rights Committee consider the rest of the 21 communications based on the examination of their merits.
 
At the end of the opening session, the Committee discussed its working methods which focused on the problem emanating from the delay in the examination of communications under the Optional Protocol.  That delay would only increase due to the steadily rising number of complaints received by the Committee, observed Mr. Yuval Shany, the Committee Expert in charge of the issue.  The review process could be expedited when considering cases that did not pose any particular legal problems, as part of a "pilot procedure".  Several Experts opined that some States reviewed under the accelerated procedure would criticize it.  At the end of the discussion, the Committee unanimously adopted the decision to test the proposed pilot procedure for a year.

The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. today to begin its consideration of the initial report of South Africa (CCPR/C/ZAF/1).

During its one hundred and sixteenth session, to be held from 7 to 31 March 2016, the Committee will also consider the reports of Namibia, Sweden, Rwanda, New Zealand, Slovenia, and Costa Rica.

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