Reporting obligations under United Nations instruments in the field of human rights : resolution / adopted by the General Assembly

 

Reporting obligations under United Nations instruments on human rights

  The General Assembly, Having considered the report of the Secretary-General containing updated information as at 1 June 1986 on the problem of overdue reports by States parties to United Nations instruments on human rights, the comments of States parties with more than two such reports and information on training activities to assist States to fulfil their reporting obligations, Noting with concern the critical situation with regard to overdue reports under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the significant backlog of reports developing in relation to other United Nations instruments on human rights, Recognizing the burden that coexisting reporting systems places upon Member States that are parties to various instruments and noting that this burden may become more onerous as additional instruments come into force, Welcoming the decision of States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to approve the practice of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of considering multiple overdue reports in consolidated form, Reiterating the fundamental importance it attaches to the fulfilment of reporting obligations under international instruments on human rights, Drawing attention to the need for States parties to submit reports in a timely manner to the various bodies that have been set up to supervise implementation of United Nations instruments on human rights and to co-operate as fully as possible with those bodies to make the best use of their meeting time, in particular by presenting their reports on scheduled dates or, if that is not possible, by providing sufficient notice to enable meeting time to be reallocated, Bearing in mind the need for those bodies which depend on funding from the regular budget of the United Nations to improve their efficiency and cost-effectiveness, especially in view of the financial emergency faced by the United Nations,

1. Urges States parties with overdue reports to make every effort to present their reports as soon as possible and to take advantage of opportunities whereby such reports could be consolidated;

2. Requests the Secretary-General to continue work on developing a compilation of the general guidelines elaborated by the various supervisory bodies and the list of articles dealing with related rights under United Nations instruments on human rights;

3. Encourages States parties to take the relevant guidelines into account when preparing reports and to provide reports that are as succinct as possible;

4. Invites the Chairmen of the supervisory bodies to encourage their respective members:

(a) To give priority attention to consideration of remedial measures to deal with the problems highlighted in the Secretary-General's report;

(b) To give further consideration to harmonizing and consolidating the reporting guidelines developed by these bodies and to other means whereby duplication could be avoided in the submission of material by States parties to the various supervisory bodies;

(c) To consider rearranging, where possible, the periodicity of reporting, especially in view of the future probable increase in the number of instruments;

(d) To report on the results of their deliberations to the appropriate meetings of States parties;

5. Further invites the Chairmen of these bodies to maintain communication and dialogue with each other on common issues and problems;

6. Requests the Secretary-General to consider making provision in his proposed programme budget for the biennium 1988-1989 for a meeting of the Chairmen of these bodies in 1988;

7. Invites the new Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to give early attention to the question of the reporting system on implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, taking due account of reporting guidelines developed by the Sessional Working Group of Governmental Experts on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;

8. Reaffirms the importance of maintaining summary records of the substantive proceedings of the bodies supervising implementation of United Nations instruments on human rights, in particular for the presentation and consideration of reports by States parties;

9. Endorses the Secretary-General's proposals to arrange, within existing resources and taking into account the priorities of the programme of advisory services, training courses for those regions experiencing the most serious difficulties in meeting reporting obligations under United Nations instruments on human rights;

10. Decides to include in the provisional agenda of its forty-second session a separate item entitled "Reporting obligations of States parties to United Nations instruments on human rights".