Reporting Obligations Under United Nations Instruments on Human Rights

A/RES/42/105View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 102 Reporting obligations of States parties to United Nations conventions on human rights, published in 1988.

What subjects does this mandate have?

16 subjects

Advisory Services Agenda Conferences Coordination Within UN System Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Guidelines Human Rights Information Dissemination Information Exchange International Instruments Periodic Reports Report Preparation Reporting Procedures Statistics Training Programmes Treaties

What’s in this document?

23 operative paragraphs

Urges States parties to United Nations instruments on human rights with reports overdue to make every effort to present their reports as soon as possible and to take advantage of opportunities whereby such reports can be consolidated;

Invites States parties to United Nations instruments on human rights to review the processes followed in the preparation of their periodic reports with a view to ensuring compliance with relevant guidelines, improving the quality of description and analysis and limiting reports to a reasonable length;

Requests the Secretary-General to revise, as a matter of priority and in consultation with the treaty bodies, the draft compilation of general guidelines elaborated by the various supervisory bodies and the list of articles dealing with related rights under the United Nations instruments on human rights, and to include in the guidelines, where appropriate, the general comments of the supervisory bodies in order to assist States parties in compiling reports;

Further requests the Secretary-General:

To propose a draft agenda for the meeting of the persons chairing the treaty bodies to be held at Geneva in October 1988, which reflects, in ter afia, the following objectives:

To give priority attention to consideration of remedial measures, including co-ordinated action when appropriate, to deal with the problems highlighted in the reports of the Secretary-General;98

To give further consideration to harmonizing and consolidating reporting guidelines on the basis of the suggestions in the above-mentioned reports,

with a view to providing clearer and more compre-

96 See CERD/SP /26.

97 See CERD/SP/31.

hensive guidelines for more concise reporting by States parties;

iii

To identify and develop possible projects for technical advisory services with a view to assisting States parties upon their request in fulfilling their reporting obligations;

To explore ways of expediting consideration of periodic reports, such as by envisaging time-limits on oral interventions, avoiding duplication in questioning,

requesting supplementary written material, and encouraging States parties to submit reports that are as succinct as possible;

To circulate a draft agenda for the meeting to the treaty bodies to enable comment and to facilitate preparations;

To submit a report on the meeting to the General Assembly at its forty-fourth session;

Invites the persons chairing the treaty bodies to maintain communication and dialogue with each other on common issues and problems;

Invites States parties to United Nations instruments on human rights to consider at their meetings further ways of streamlining and otherwise improving reporting procedures, as well as enhancing co-ordination and information flow between the treaty bodies and with relevant United Nations bodies, including the specialized agencies, and requests the Secretary-General to inform the General Assembly of any decisions of the States parties on these issues;

Welcomes the efforts of the treaty bodies to rationalize reporting procedures and to scrutinize periodic reports more intensively and expeditiously,

Invites the newly established Committee against Torture to give due attention to the issues raised in the present resolution when developing arrangements for periodie reporting by States parties;

Requests the Economic and Social Council to consider rearranging the periodicity of reporting under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; 13 10.

Requests the Secretary-General to provide from official United Nations sources a compilation of statistics relevant to the consideration by the treaty bodies ofthe reports of States parties;

Requests the Secretary-General to strengthen coordination between the Centre for Human Rights and the Centre for Social Development and Humanitarian Affairs of the Secretariat with reference to the implementation of human rights instruments and the servicing oftreaty bodies;

Requests the Secretary-General to arrange, within existing resources and taking into account the priorities of the programme of advisory services, further training courses for those countries experiencing the most serious difficulties in meeting reporting obligations under United Nations instruments on human rights;

Invites the specialized agencies and other United Nations bodies to assist the Secretary-General in the above-mentioned endeavours and to develop complementary training activities in this field;

Requests the Secretary-General to ensure that the annual reports ofthe Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Human Rights Committee, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against

Women and the Committee against Torture are made available to ali the members of these bodies;

Requests the Secretary-General to transmit, as expeditiously as possible, the text of the present resolution to ali members of the treaty bodies;

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

VI. 98 A/40/600 and Add.l and A/41/510

99 See A/42/699, annex I, resolution CM/Res.1117 (XLVII).

100 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Forty-second Session, Supplement No. 12A (A/42/12/ Add.1), para. 209.

103 /bid., vol. 1001, No. 14691.

IOI United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, No. 2545.

I04 A/42/491.

102 /bid., vol. 606, No. 879 l.

IOS A/39/402, annex.

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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