Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 8 The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

This chapter explores the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (PFII), which is the first permanent UN body in which state and non-state nominees hold equal status. The PFII is primarily a product of increasing recognition within the UN system of the need for more focused attention to protect and promote indigenous peoples’ rights—full accommodation of indigenous rights within existing human rights mechanisms and instruments ‘remains elusive’, and indigenous individuals and communities across the world continue to experience significant discrimination and social and economic disadvantage. Since the adoption in 2007 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the first comprehensive and generally applicable international instrument on indigenous rights, the PFII has taken an increasingly rights-based approach across its mandate. The chapter then considers the PFII’s institutional landscape and its strengths and weaknesses as a protector and promoter of human rights, with a focus on implementation of the Declaration.

Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 7 The Commission on the Status of Women

This chapter describes the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which was the first international organ ever created to promote women’s rights and equality. The status of women has been on the agenda of the United Nations since its inception and typically addressed as an issue of discrimination in relation to human rights. As the UN’s work on human rights has evolved and expanded, so have its apparatuses and activities on the advancement of women’s rights and status. The CSW played a key role in drafting declarations and treaties that promote women’s rights, organizing world conferences on women, the development of other UN agencies that address women’s issues, and monitoring and evaluating the attention given to women by other agencies. The chapter examines and discusses the CSW’s operational structure, changing agenda, major accomplishments, the difficulties encountered by the Commission, and the controversies surrounding both its work and the UN approach to women’s issues.

Part III Organs Monitoring Treaty Compliance, 9 The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

This chapter studies the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the oldest of the monitoring bodies of the UN ‘core’ treaties. Preceded by a Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1963, the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 21 December 1965 and entered into force on 4 January 1969. CERD oversees the implementation of the Convention. The chapter evaluates how CERD has worked to deliver its mandate, where it has innovated, and where it has been able to draw upon the wider human rights acquis to ground its positions, and where it may have struggled to deliver. It focuses on a number of issues around the core principles: discrimination and the grounds thereof; special measures; segregation; and the problem of addressing hate speech.

Part III Organs Monitoring Treaty Compliance, 11 The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women

This chapter examines the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a body of independent experts assigned the task of monitoring states’ efforts to fulfil their obligations under the CEDAW Convention. The principal basis for monitoring was to be the submission and review of reports submitted regularly by States parties. The chapter then addresses the work of CEDAW and its contribution to making the guarantees of the Convention a reality. An assessment of the record of a treaty body such as CEDAW must take into account, among other factors, the mandate of the body, the expertise and commitment of its members, the political and international legal context of its work, the resources available to it, the efficiency and effectiveness of its procedures, and the quality and impact of its output.

Part III Organs Monitoring Treaty Compliance, 13 The Committee against Torture and the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture

This chapter focuses on the Committee against Torture and the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture. The role of the Committee is to monitor the implementation by States parties of their obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Torture Convention). The goal of the Torture Convention is to eradicate torture, often seen as one of the gravest human rights violations, through a mix of prevention and repression. The Convention was supplemented in 2002 by the adoption of an Optional Protocol to the Convention, which established an additional supervisory body—the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, which commenced its work in 2007. The chapter then considers the work of the Committee over the last thirty years and provides an overview of the evolution and functions of the Subcommittee.

Part IV The Governance of Human Rights, 19 The High Commissioner for Human Rights

This chapter discusses the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The High Commissioner’s Office is much more than the secretariat of the Human Rights Council and the other UN human rights bodies. The High Commissioner’s Office conducts fact-finding, engages with governments, develops policies for the UN system as a whole, monitors situations around the world, and the High Commissioner himself or herself often speaks out to condemn policies and practices. Inevitably this means suggesting a course of action for the member states and other parts of the UN system that those actors may be resistant to. The chapter then outlines the development of the Office and highlights some of the achievements while pointing to the obstacles that any High Commissioner has to overcome.

Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 5 The Human Rights Council

This chapter focuses on the Human Rights Council. As the principal UN human rights body, the Council is arguably the lynchpin of the UN human rights machinery, bringing together states, independent experts, UN staff, and civil society actors, as well as reporting to the full UN membership via the General Assembly. The Human Rights Council is also quite a unique body, combining the most intensely political elements, a high degree of reliance on expertise, and in situ human rights investigations in order to fulfil its duties to protect, to promote, and to develop international human rights law. Many of the criticisms of the Council fail to take into account the ways in which it is hampered by its mandate, powers, and mechanisms. The chapter then considers the Council’s creation, its mandate and functions, and details the body’s strengths and weaknesses.

Part IV The Governance of Human Rights, 20 Human Rights Co-Ordination Within the UN System

This concluding chapter looks at human rights co-ordination within the UN system. For a long time, human rights in the United Nations tended to be treated as a special domain, one which might be of growing importance, but which did not necessarily need to be a consistent focus of the entire UN machinery. The importance of co-ordination and coherence for human rights promotion, however, has steadily become clearer, as the perception has grown that the human rights ‘issue area’ cannot be successfully dealt with in a vacuum or in isolation. The focus here, accordingly, is on the relationship of human rights to various relevant parts of the UN system—‘inter-regime’ co-ordination—rather than on co-ordination among human rights activities undertaken by the various members of the UN family of institutions—‘intra-regime’ co-ordination. It is the former aspect of co-ordination that has proved to be most problematic and had achieved the least progress until the recent period.

Part I The Human Rights Mandate of the Principal Organs, 3 The Economic and Social Council

This chapter looks at the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) role in promoting human rights. The ECOSOC, whose origins lie in ambitious proposals drawn up in 1939 within the League of Nations for a ‘Central Committee for Economic and Social questions’, was supposed to be the central piece of that machinery, one that would work for the purpose of achieving ‘international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character’. Yet, ECOSOC has never been as central a body in the United Nations as one might have expected it to be. In every proposal for reform, it is one of the prime candidates for significant change or even elimination. The chapter suggests that this has significantly hampered its potential contribution to human rights over the years.

Part II Subsidiary Human Rights Organs, 6 A Critical Appraisal of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee

This chapter assesses the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, which was created under the Council’s Institution-building resolution with the aim of providing expert advice to the Council. Indeed, the idea behind its creation was that this body would analyse issues and problems at the Council’s request, provide expert advice, and make recommendations to the Council. The Committee’s focus is mainly on studies and research-based advice and it is designed to be implementation-oriented. As a result, its margin of manoeuvre and scope of advice are limited to themes pertaining to the Council’s mandate and choice. Since its inception, the Committee has developed a practice of suggesting topics to the Human Rights Council by way of research proposals. The Council has acted upon some of the themes included in these proposals by requesting the Committee to conduct relevant studies.