Effective Implementation of International Instruments on Human Rights, Including Reporting Obligations Under International Instruments on Human Rights

A/RES/55/90No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 114aImplementation of human rights instruments, published in 2001.

What other versions does this mandate have?

12 versions · 1990–2003

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/57/202

2003A/RES/57/202Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rightsLatestCompare with previous version
2001A/RES/55/90Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rightsCompare with previous version
1999A/RES/53/138Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rightsCompare with previous version
1998A/RES/52/118Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rightsCompare with previous version
1997A/RES/51/87Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rightsCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What does this mandate say?

31 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the submission of the reports of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies on their eleventh and twelfth meetings, held at Geneva from 31 May to 4 June 1999 and 5 to 8 June 2000, respectively, and takes note of their conclusions and recommendations;

Encourages each treaty body to continue to give careful consideration to the relevant conclusions and recommendations contained in the reports of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, and in this context also encourages enhanced cooperation and coordination between the treaty bodies;

Welcomes the initiative of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies of inviting representatives of Member States to participate in a dialogue within the framework of their meetings, and encourages them to continue this practice in the future;

Welcomes the comments by Governments, United Nations bodies and specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations and interested persons on the final report of the independent expert on enhancing the long-term effectiveness of the United Nations human rights treaty system and the report of the Secretary-General thereon;

Emphasizes the need to ensure financing and adequate staff and information resources for the operations of the human rights treaty bodies, and with this in mind:

Reiterates its request to the Secretary-General to provide adequate resources in respect of each human rights treaty body, while making the most efficient use of existing resources, in order to give the human rights treaty bodies adequate administrative support and better access to technical expertise and relevant information;

Calls upon the Secretary-General to seek, in the next biennium, the resources within the regular budget of the United Nations necessary to give the human rights treaty bodies adequate administrative support and better access to technical expertise and relevant information without diverting resources from the development programmes and activities of the United Nations;

Welcomes the plans of action prepared by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to enhance the resources available to all the human rights treaty bodies and thereby strengthen the implementation of the human rights treaties, and encourages all Governments, United Nations bodies and specialized agencies, non-governmental organizations and interested persons to consider contributing to the appeal for extrabudgetary resources for the treaty bodies made by the High Commissioner until the regular budget funding meets their needs;

Encourages ongoing efforts to identify measures for more effective implementation of the United Nations human rights instruments;

Takes note of the measures taken by each of the human rights treaty bodies to improve their functioning, as reflected in their respective annual reports, and encourages continuing efforts by the treaty bodies and the Secretary-General to assist States parties in meeting their reporting obligations and to reduce the backlog in the consideration of reports by the treaty bodies;

Welcomes the continuing efforts by the human rights treaty bodies and the Secretary-General aimed at streamlining, rationalizing, rendering more transparent and otherwise improving reporting procedures, and encourages the Secretary-General, the treaty bodies and the persons chairing the treaty bodies at their next meeting to continue to examine ways of reducing the duplication of reporting required under the different instruments, without impairing the quality of reporting, and of generally reducing the reporting burden on States parties, including through an ongoing examination of proposals for reports focused on a limited range of issues, the harmonization of the general guidelines regarding the form and content of reports, the possibility of consolidating overdue reports, the timing of consideration of reports and the methods of work of the treaty bodies;

Calls upon the Secretary-General to complete as soon as possible the detailed analytical study comparing the provisions of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,9 the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which is being prepared with a view to identifying duplication of reporting required under those instruments;

Urges States parties to contribute, individually and through meetings of States parties, to identifying practical proposals and ideas for improving the functioning of the human rights treaty bodies;

Welcomes the publication of the revised Manual on Human Rights Reporting, and encourages the updating of the Manual to reflect new developments in the field of human rights, including the adoption of new instruments;

Underlines the importance of providing technical assistance to a State, upon its request, in the process of ratifying human rights instruments and in the preparation of its initial and subsequent reports;

Welcomes the work done by the Secretary-General to compile in a single volume all the general guidelines regarding the form and content of reports to be submitted by States parties that have been issued by the human rights treaty bodies, and encourages the Secretary-General also to compile the rules of procedure for the treaty bodies;

Reiterates its concern about the persistent backlog of reports on the implementation by States parties of certain United Nations instruments on human rights and about delays in the consideration of reports of the human rights treaty bodies;

Also reiterates its concern about the large number of overdue reports, and again urges States parties to make every effort to meet their reporting obligations;

Urges all States parties whose reports have been examined by human rights treaty bodies to provide adequate follow-up to the observations and final comments of the treaty bodies on their reports;

Encourages the human rights treaty bodies to continue to identify specific possibilities for technical assistance, to be provided at the request of the State concerned, in the regular course of their work of reviewing the periodic reports of States parties, and encourages States parties to consider carefully the concluding observations of the treaty bodies in identifying their needs for technical assistance;

Urges each State party to translate, publish and make widely available in its territory the full text of the concluding observations on its reports to the human rights treaty bodies;

Welcomes the contribution to the work of the human rights treaty bodies made by the specialized agencies and other United Nations bodies, and encourages the specialized agencies and other United Nations bodies, the Commission on Human Rights, including its special procedures, and the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies to continue to explore specific measures to intensify this cooperation between them and to improve communication and information flow in order to improve further the quality of their work, including by avoiding unnecessary duplication;

Recognizes the important role played by non-governmental organizations in all parts of the world in the effective implementation of all human rights instruments, and encourages the exchange of information between the human rights treaty bodies and such organizations;

Recalls, with regard to the election of the members of the human rights treaty bodies, the importance of giving consideration to equitable geographical distribution and gender balance of the membership and to the representation of the principal legal systems and of bearing in mind that the members shall be elected and shall serve in their personal capacity and shall be of high moral character, acknowledged independence and recognized competence in the field of human rights, and encourages States parties, individually and through meetings of States parties, to consider how to give better effect to these principles;

Takes note of the discussion of the payment of honorariums to the members of the human rights treaty bodies included in the report of the Secretary-General,4 and of other work being done by the Secretary-General on this subject, and encourages Member States to consider possible follow-up;

Encourages the Economic and Social Council, as well as its functional commissions and their subsidiary bodies, other United Nations bodies and the specialized agencies to consider the feasibility of participation by representatives of the human rights treaty bodies in their meetings;

Welcomes the continuing emphasis by the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies on closely monitoring the enjoyment of the human rights of women within their mandates;

Also welcomes the contributions of the human rights treaty bodies, within their mandates, to the prevention of violations of human rights, in the context of their consideration of reports submitted under their respective treaties;

Invites the Secretary-General to submit the reports of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies on their periodic meetings to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session;

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session on measures taken to implement the present resolution, on obstacles to its implementation and on measures taken or planned to ensure financing and adequate staff and information resources for the effective operation of the human rights treaty bodies;

Decides to continue to give priority consideration at its fifty-seventh session to the conclusions and recommendations of the periodic meetings of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, in the light of the deliberations of the Commission on Human Rights, under the item entitled “Human rights questions”.

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Effective Implementation of International Instruments on Human Rights, Including Reporting Obligations Under International Instruments on Human Rights

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