Effective functioning of bodies established pursuant to United Nations human rights instruments.

1992/15.
Effective functioning of bodies established Pursuant to United Nations human rights instruments

The Commission on Human Rights, Recalling General Assembly resolution 46/111 of 17 December 1991 and Commission on Human Rights resolution 1991/20 of 1 March 1991, as well as other relevant resolutions, Reaffirming that the effective implementation of United Nations human rights instruments is of major importance to the efforts of the Organization, pursuant to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Considering that the effective functioning of treaty bodies established pursuant to United Nations human rights instruments is indispensable for the full and effective implementation of such instruments, Expressing concern about the continuing and increasing backlog of reports on implementation by States parties of United Nations human rights instruments and about delays in consideration of reports by the treaty bodies, Expressing concern also about the non-fulfilment by many States parties of their financial obligations under the relevant United Nations instruments oil human rights, Aware that the General Assembly, in its resolution 46/111, reaffirmed its responsibility to ensure the proper functioning of the said treaty bodies and, in this connection, reaffirmed the importance of:

(a) Ensuring the effective functioning of systems of periodic reporting by States parties to these instruments;

(b) Securing sufficient financial resources to overcome existing difficulties with their effective functioning;

(c) Addressing questions of both reporting obligations and financial implications whenever elaborating any further instruments on human rights,

Recalling the conclusions and recommendations of the second meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, held at Geneva from 10 to 14 October 1988 (E/CN.4/1989/62, annex), and the endorsement of the recommendations aimed at streamlining, rationalizing and otherwise improving reporting procedures by the General Assembly in its resolution 44/135 of 15 December 1989 and the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 1989/47 of 6 March 1989, Taking note of the conclusions and recommendations of the third meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, held at Geneva from 1 to 5 October 1990 (A/45/636, annex, sect. VI), Taking note with appreciation of the study on possible long-term approaches to enhancing the effective operation of existing and prospective bodies established under United Nations human rights instruments prepared by the Independent Expert pursuant to Commission resolution 1989/47 (A/44/668, annex), Taking note with appreciation also that the Economic and Social Council, in its decision 1990/226 of 25 May 1990, approved the recommendation of the Commission for computerizing the work of the treaty-monitoring bodies in relation to reporting systems, and requested the Secretary-General to include the annual recurrent cost of the system proposed by the Task Force on Computerization appointed by the Secretary-General (E/CN.4/1990/39, annex, para. 63) in the programme budget for the biennium 1992-1993, when the proposed system was expected to become operational, Noting that the General Assembly, in its resolution 45/85 of 14 December 1990, endorsed the recommendations of the Task Force on Computerization with a view to increasing efficiency and facilitating compliance by States parties with their reporting obligations and the examination of reports by the treaty bodies, and requested the Secretary-General to give high priority to establishing a computerized database to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the functioning of the treaty bodies,

1. Endorses the continuing efforts aimed at streamlining, rationalizing and otherwise improving reporting procedures of the treaty bodies and the Secretary-General within their respective spheres of competence;

2. Welcomes the conclusions and recommendations with regard to the better functioning of the treaty bodies contained in the study on possible long-term approaches to enhancing the effective operation of existing and prospective bodies established under United Nations human rights instruments;

3. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General (E/CN.4/1992/44) on the comments of the treaty bodies, other than the Human Rights Committee, concerning the study on possible long-term approaches;

4. Endorses the recommendation in the report of the third meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies to institutionalize the meetings and requests the General Assembly to take appropriate action to enable these meetings to be held on a biennial basis;

5. Requests that the meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies in 1992 include on its agenda the question of the extent of reservations to human rights instruments;

6. Stresses the continuing need for consultation and exchange of information between all treaty bodies, including the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women;

7. Requests the Secretary-General to give consideration to the proposal endorsed by the second and third meetings of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies and by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (see E/1992/23, chap. X), to establish a committee resource room for the purpose of gathering and facilitating access to the various sources of information that are indispensable for the effective functioning of the various treaty bodies;

8. Urges States parties to make every effort to meet their reporting obligations and to contribute, individually and through meetings of States parties, to identifying and implementing ways of further streamlining and improving reporting procedures;

9. Also urges all States parties to meet without delay all their financial obligations pursuant to United Nations human rights instruments;

10. Invites meetings of States parties to consider ways and means of strengthening the collection of contributions and of making procedures more effective and, if necessary, to reconsider the position of States parties that are substantially in default on their assessed contributions;

11. Welcomes the endorsement by the General Assembly in its resolution 46/111 of the recommendation of the third meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies and of the Independent Expert on possible long-term approaches that the Assembly should take appropriate measures to ensure the financing of the human rights treaty bodies from the regular budget of the United Nations;

12. Requests the General Assembly to mandate the Secretary-General to take the appropriate steps in order to finance the meetings of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies from the available resources of the regular budget of the United Nations, when necessary, with the proviso that reimbursement shall eventually be made in every instance from the contributions of States parties to conventions concerned or from other appropriate sources;

13. Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its forty-seventh session a further report examining the financial, legal and other implications of providing full funding for the operation of all human rights treaty bodies;

14. Reiterates its conviction that in standard-setting every effort should be made to maximize normative consistency and that any new standards should take full account of the factors enumerated in General Assembly resolution 41/120 of 4 December 1986;

15. Requests the Secretary-General to give priority to expediting the implementation of the recommendations of the Task Force on Computerization (E/CN.4/1990/39, annex) as soon as possible by requesting the Member States of the United Nations, in particular States which are parties to various human rights instruments, to make generous voluntary contributions to cover the initial one-time cost of the proposed system;

16. Also requests the Secretary-General to prepare an inventory of all international human rights standard-setting activities in order to facilitate better informed decision-making;

17. Further requests the Secretary-General to ensure that recent periodic reports of States parties to treaty-monitoring bodies and the summary records of committee discussions pertaining to them are made available in the United Nations information centres in the countries submitting those reports;

18. Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the United Nations Manual on Human Rights Reporting is available in all official languages at the earliest opportunity;

19. Decides to consider the question on a priority basis at its forty-ninth session under the agenda item entitled "Effective functioning of bodies established pursuant to United Nations human rights instruments".

38th meeting
21 February 1992
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. XVI.]