The Future of UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring

by Edited by Philip Alston , James Crawford

• ISBN13: 9780521641951
• ISBN10: 0521641950
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Every state in the world has undertaken human rights obligations on the basis of UN treaties. Today's challenge is to enhance the effectiveness of procedures and institutions established to promote the accountability of governments. The six treaty bodies that monitor and evaluate state policies and practices play a vital role, but the whole system has been stretched almost to breaking point. It is under-funded, many governments fail to report or do so very late or superficially, there is a growing backlog of individual complaints, broad reservations have been lodged by many states, and the expertise of committee members has been questioned. This volume contains detailed analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the system, written by leading participants in the work of the treaty bodies. Their recommendations provide a blueprint for far-reaching reform of a system of major importance for the future of international efforts to protect human rights.

Table of Contents

List of Tables, Figure, Appendices	viii
Notes on Contributors	ix
Editors' Preface	xv
Table of Treaties	xvii
Table of Cases	xxiii
List of Abbreviations	xxxii
The UN human rights treaty system: A system in crisis?	1	(14)
James Crawford
A The UN human rights monitoring system in action
Individual claims in a world of massive violations: What role for the Human Rights Committee?	15	(40)
Henry J. Steiner
Decision-taking in the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination	55	(24)
Michael Banton
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women at the crossroads	79	(34)
Mara R. Bustelo
The reporting process under the Convention on the Rights of the Child	113	(16)
Gerison Lansdown
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Catalyst for change in a system needing reform	129	(16)
Scott Leckie
Country-oriented procedures under the Convention against Torture: Towards a new dynamism	145	(30)
Roland Bank
UN human rights reporting procedures: An NGO perspective	175	(26)
Andrew Clapham
B National influences and responses
Making human rights treaty obligations a reality: Working with new actors and partners	201	(28)
Anne Gallagher
Domestic implementation of international human rights treaties: Nordic and Baltic experiences	229	(16)
Martin Scheinin
The domestic impact of international human rights standards: The Japanese experience	245	(24)
Yuji Iwasawa
The role of human rights treaty standards in domestic law: The Southern African experience	269	(18)
John Dugard
Uses and abuses of the treaty reporting procedure: Hong Kong between two systems	287	(30)
Andrew Byrnes
The United States and the international human rights treaty system: For export only?	317	(16)
Stefanie Grant
C Regional and sectoral comparisons
Reporting in the Inter-American system of human rights protection	333	(14)
Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade
Lessons from the reporting system of the European Social Charter	347	(14)
David Harris
The role of reporting in international environmental treaties: Lessons for human rights supervision	361	(22)
Daniel Bodansky
D Common challenges for the treaty bodies
The problem of overlapping among different treaty bodies	383	(20)
Eric Tistounet
Bodies of knowledge: A diversity promotion role for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights	403	(36)
Craig Scott
Treaty bodies responding to states of emergency: The case of Bosnia and Herzegovina	439	(22)
Michael O'Flaherty
Ensuring effective supervisory procedures: The need for resources	461	(20)
Elizabeth Evatt
Servicing and financing human rights supervision	481	(20)
Markus Schmidt
E Looking to the future
Beyond `them' and `us': Putting treaty body reform into perspective	501	(26)
Philip Alston
Index	527