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

A/RES/52/118View PDF

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 112a Implementation of human rights instruments, published in 1998.

What other versions does this mandate have?

12 versions · 1990–2003

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

Year	Symbol	Title	Word length	Text similarity
2003	A/RES/57/202	Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rights	1,823	52%Compare
2001	A/RES/55/90	Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rights	1,972	60%Compare
1999	A/RES/53/138	Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rights	2,250	72%Compare
1998	A/RES/52/118	Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rights	2,026	50%Compare
1997	A/RES/51/87	Effective implementation of international instruments on human rights, including reporting obligations under international instruments on human rights	1,555	52%Compare

What subjects does this mandate have?

18 subjects

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Financing Guidelines Human Rights Human Rights Violations Information Dissemination International Instruments Manuals Members Periodic Reports Reporting Procedures Rights of the Child Salaries and Allowances Staffing Technical Cooperation Treaties Treaty-Monitoring Bodies Women's Rights

What’s in this document?

32 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the submission of the report of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies on their eighth meeting, held at Geneva from 15 to 19 September 1997,⁶ and takes note of their conclusions and recommendations;

⁶A/52/507, annex.

Encourages each human rights treaty body to give careful consideration to the relevant conclusions and recommendations contained in the report of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies;

Welcomes the submission to the Commission on Human Rights of the final report of the independent expert on enhancing the long-term effectiveness of the United Nations human rights treaty system;⁷

⁷E/CN.4/1997/74, annex.

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

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 that the Secretary-General provide adequate resources in respect of each human rights treaty body;

Calls upon the Secretary-General to make the most efficient use of existing resources and to seek the resources necessary to give the human rights treaty bodies adequate administrative support and better access to technical expertise and relevant information;

Takes note with appreciation of the revised plan of action to strengthen the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child⁸ and the plan of action to strengthen implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,⁹ recalls the importance of administering those plans in accordance with established United Nations procedures, and requests the Secretary-General to include in his report prepared pursuant to the present resolution information on the implementation of those plans of action;

⁸Resolution 44/25, annex.

⁹See resolution 2200 A (XXI), annex.

Reaffirms the need for human rights treaty bodies to better complement each other in their work, and emphasizes that the universal ratification of international human rights treaties containing reporting obligations adopted within the framework of the United Nations system is important for the realization of that complementarity;

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 urges the Secretary-General, the treaty bodies and the meetings of persons chairing the treaty bodies 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 alleviating the reporting burden on States parties;

Takes note with appreciation, in this regard, of the efforts of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies, at their eighth meeting, to develop appropriate reforms of the reporting system, with a view to, inter alia, reducing the reporting burden on States parties while maintaining the quality of reporting, and encourages them to continue these efforts, including through the continued examination of the benefits of reports focused on a limited range of issues and of opportunities for harmonizing the general guidelines regarding the form and content of 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,8 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,8 the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,¹⁰ the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,¹¹ the Convention on the Rights of the Child7 and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment,¹² which is being prepared with a view to identifying duplication of reporting required under those instruments;

¹⁰Resolution 2106 A (XX), annex.

¹¹Resolution 34/180, annex.

¹²Resolution 39/46, annex.

Urges States parties to contribute, individually and through meetings of States parties, to the identification and implementation of ways of further streamlining, rationalizing, avoiding duplication of and otherwise improving reporting procedures;

Welcomes the publication of the revised Manual on Human Rights Reporting;

Requests 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 Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee against Torture;

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

Also reiterates its concern about the large number of overdue reports under the United Nations instruments on human rights, and again urges States parties to make every effort to meet their reporting obligations;

Invites States parties that have been unable to comply with the requirements to submit their initial report to avail themselves of technical assistance;

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;

Recalls the recommendation by the meeting of persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies that treaty bodies urge 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 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 invites the specialized agencies, other United Nations bodies and the treaty bodies to continue to pursue further cooperation between them;

Notes that efforts continue to be made at coordination and cooperation between the human rights treaty bodies and the special procedures, rapporteurs, representatives, experts and working groups of the Commission on Human Rights and the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, all acting within their respective mandates;

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 of membership and to the representation of the principal legal systems and of bearing in mind that the members shall be elected and serve in their personal capacity and shall be of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights;

Requests the Secretary-General to include in his report prepared pursuant to the present resolution a detailed explanation of the basis for the payment of honoraria to the members of the human rights treaty bodies and suggestions to improve coherence in this regard;

Encourages the Economic and Social Council, as well as its functional commissions and their subsidiary bodies, and 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 that the enjoyment of the human rights of women should be monitored closely by each treaty body within the purview of its mandate, and, in this regard, endorses the request of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies that the Division for the Advancement of Women of the Secretariat prepare a study, for use by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the treaty bodies, analysing what each treaty body has done to incorporate gender perspectives into its work and making practical suggestions about what each could do to further incorporate gender perspectives;¹³

¹³A/52/507, annex, para. 62.

Also welcomes all appropriate measures the human rights treaty bodies may take, within their mandates, in response to situations of massive human rights violations, including bringing those violations to the attention of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretary-General and the competent bodies of the United Nations in the field of human rights, and requests the High Commissioner, acting within her mandate, to coordinate and consult throughout the United Nations system in this regard;

Welcomes the request of the persons chairing the human rights treaty bodies to hold an extraordinary three-day meeting early in 1998 to pursue the reform process with the aim of improving the effective implementation of international instruments on human rights,¹⁴ and requests the Secretary-General to take the appropriate steps to finance the meeting from the available resources of the regular budget of the United Nations;

¹⁴Ibid., para. 75.

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the General Assembly at its fifty-third 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 giving priority consideration at its fifty-third session to the conclusions and recommendations of the meetings of persons chairing human rights treaty bodies, in the light of the deliberations of the Commission on Human Rights, under the item entitled "Human rights questions".

Who adopted this document and its mandates?

What other versions does this mandate have?

What subjects does this mandate have?

What’s in this document?

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