The United Nation Mechanism For The Enforcement Of Human Rights: An Exploration

Introduction:

International human rights law obliges States to respect, implement, and enforce the treaty bodies they
have ratified at a national level. Mechanisms and bodies have been established within the United
Nations’ System to monitor the States’ overall compliance with human rights law. Human rights can and
should be enforced domestically through national human rights mechanisms or court systems, when
these rights are incorporated into domestic law.

However, in some cases, where domestic legal proceedings fail to address human rights violations,
mechanisms and procedures for individual complaints or communications are available at regional and
international levels.

The numerous UN committees provides a forum for all Member States to air their views and take action
on a number of issues. UN human rights monitoring mechanisms can be classified into two main
categories:

UN Charter-based bodies and procedures and Treaty-based bodies and procedures. The former derive
from provisions in the Charter of the United Nations (UN); the latter are bodies created under
international human rights treaties. These two mechanisms complement each other.

Promotion And Protection Through Un Human Rights Mechanisms

Originally, the principal body responsible for human rights in the UN was the Commission on Human
Rights. It carried out bulk of the standard- setting activity of the early years following the adoption by
the UDHR.A major milestone was the adoption in 1966 of the two international covenants- International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) & the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) which together transformed the aspirational rights of the UDHR into binding
treaty law. A second milestone was the systematic advancement of women’s rights in the Declaration on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In the 1970’s & 1980’s the UN
adopted other core human rights treaties on racial discrimination, torture, children’s rights, & in the
1990’s and 2000’s rights of migrant workers and persons with disabilities. For all their shortcomings, the
expansion of the thirty articles of the UDHR into a considerable body of treaty law, with an impressive
amount of interpretative work by nine treaty- monitoring bodies is an undeniable UN accomplishment.

The Commission, consisting of 53 governments elected by ECOSOC to which it reported, was replaced in
2006 by the Human Rights Council, consisting of 47 governments elected by the UNGA, to which it
report. Before and following the 2006 reform, there has arisen an array of mechanisms based either on
the Charter and applicable to all UN member states or on treaties binding only states that have ratified
them and which are administered by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).It
has thus become traditional to distinguish Charter- based procedures and treaty- based procedures.

The ten human rights Treaty Bodies, made up of committees of independent experts, monitor
implementation of the core international human rights treaties. The charter-based bodies include the
Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, the Universal Periodic Review and Independent
Investigations. UN Human Rights provides expertise and support to all of the different mechanisms.
Promoting And Protecting Human Rights Through Charter- Based Procedures

The Human Rights Council servers as the main UN Forum for intergovernmental cooperation & dialogue
on human rights issues. Its focus is to help member States to meet their human rights obligations
through dialogue, capacity building and technical assistance. The Council also makes recommendations
to the UN General assembly for further development of international law in the field of human rights.

Universal Periodic Review: (UPR)

UPR is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights record of all members of the UN
every four years. UPR is a State-driven process, under the auspices of the Human Rights Council which
provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human
rights situations in their countries and to fulfil their human rights obligations.

The important feature of UPR is to ensure equal treatment for every country when their human rights
situations are assessed. Observer States may attend and speak at the working group, and relevant
stakeholders (such as NGOs) may also attend the meetings and present information that is assembled by
the OHCHR.

Process of UPR:

Under UPR the human rights situation of all UN member States is renewed every 4 to 4.5 years. 42
States are reviewed each year during the working group on the UPR is composed of all 47 Member
States of the HR Council chaired by the President of the Human Rights Council. The review takes place in
Geneva.

The UPR comprises three stages:

Review of the human rights situation of the States under Review

Implementation between two reviews (4.5 years) by the States under Review of the recommendations
received and voluntary pledges made.

Reporting at the next review on the implementation of those recommendations and pledges and on the
human rights situation in the country since the previous review.

Proceedings of the review:

Each review commences with the presentation by the States under review of its National Report and its
response to advance questions. Advance questions are submitted by states in writing before 10 days of
the review. Following the presentation and interactive dialogue takes place during which states ask
questions and make recommendations on human rights situation in the country under review. During
this interactive dialogue the State under review takes the floor regularly to answer questions and to
comment on recommendations. At the end the State under review concludes.

Human Rights Obligations:

The following human rights obligations are reviewed. Human rights obligations under:

The Charter of the UN

Human Rights Treaties ratified by the concerned State (e.g. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).

Voluntary pledges and commitments made by the State.

Applicable international humanitarian law (e.g. Four Geneva Conventions 1949).

Outcome of Working Group Review:

This report contains the summary of the interactive dialogue, responses by the State under Review and
recommendations along with full list of recommendations made by States. The report is adopted first
time during the working group session a few days after the review. This report is then adopted by the
Human rights Council in the plenary session by consensus.

Role of non-governmental organisation in UPR:

UPR is a State driven exercise. The NGOs have limited role in it. However, they have many opportunities
to take part and influence the UPR process. Their participation can be in the national consultations held
by the State under review send information on the human rights situation in the country, lobby
members of the working group, take the floor during the adoption of the report by the Human Rights
Council and monitor and participate in the implementation by the State under review of the UPR
recommendations. NGOs cannot take the floor during the review.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

The UN High Commissioner for Human rights is appointed by the Secretary General of the UN and holds
office for four years. He has special responsibilities for promoting and protecting human rights. He was
required to report annually to the Commission on Human Rights and, through the ECOSOC to the
General Assembly. Now the Commission has been replaced by the Human Rights Council in 2006,
directly reports to the General Assembly of the UN. The Centre for Human Rights was to implement the
policies proposed by the High Commissioner.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal human rights official of the UN. He heads office
of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and spearheads UN human rights efforts. He
offers leadership, works objectively, educates and takes action to empower individuals and assists States
in upholding human rights. He is part of the UN Secretariat.

OHCHR has four major divisions:

Research and Right to Development Division – It is responsible for thematic research and policy
development.

Human Rights Treaties Division: It is responsible for supporting the work of the 10 human rights treaty
bodies that are mandated to monitor national- level implementation of international human rights
treaties.
The field, operation and Technical Cooperation Division: It supports the work of human rights field
presences and leads OHCHR engagement with countries on human rights issues.

Human Rights Council and Special Procedures Division- It provides substantive and organisational
support to the Human Rights Council, its UPR mechanism, special procedure and other subsidiary
bodies. It also provides secretarial support to Global Alliance of National Human rights Institutions
(GANHRI) including its Sub- Committee on Accreditation and its Bureau.

OHCHR provides a forum for identifying, highlighting & developing responses to today’s human rights
challenges and acts as a principal focal point human rights research, public information and advocacy
within the UN.

Special Procedures

The special procedures of the Human Rights Council are independent human rights experts with
mandates to report and advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. They
are non-paid and elected for 3-year mandates that can be re-conducted for another three years. As of
November 2023, there are 46 thematic and 14 country mandates.

Promoting and Protecting Human Rights Through Treaty- Based Procedures

Nine of the UN human rights treaties have functioning monitoring committees, called “treaties bodies,”
that examine states parties reports on progress made and problems encountered, and formulate their
observations on what needs to be done to comply with the obligations of the treaty in question: the
1966 ICESCR & ICCPR, the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial
Discrimination (ICERD), the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW), the 1984 Convention against Torture & Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CAT), 1989 Convention on the Rights of the child (CRC), the 1990
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers & Members of their
Families (CMW), the 2006 International Convention on the Rights of persons with Disabilities (CPRD),
and the 2006 International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance
(CED). A tenth treaty body, the subcommittee on Prevention of Torture, monitors places of detention
under CAT.