Human Rights Committee
Ninety-nin th session
Summary record of the second part (public)* of the 2741st meeting
Held at the Palais Wilson, Geneva, on Thursday, 29 July 2010, at 3 p.m.
Chairperson:Mr. Iwasawa
Contents
Adoption of the annual report to the General Assembly
The second part (public) of the meeting began at 5 p.m.
Adoption of the annual report
Draft annual report of the Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Part. I and Add.1 to 7; CCPR/C/99/CRP.2/Add.1 to 7)
1.The Chairperson invited the Rapporteur to present the draft annual report of the Committee prior to the chapter-by-chapter review.
2.Ms. Motoc (Rapporteur) said that unfortunately not all of the draft annual report was available yet in both English and French. Committee members could still send in any additional information needed for the report to the Secretariat. As to the publicity given to the Committee’s work, the Secretariat regularly updated the Human Rights Committee page on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and an updated DVD on the work of the treaty-based bodies would be issued shortly. The numerous historical references included in previous reports had been left out so that the report covered only what had occurred in the relevant 12-month period.
3.Mr. Salvioli said that dissemination via the WorldWide Web was important and that both volumes I and II of the annual report should be posted on the web page. Only volume I of the previous annual report had been posted on the web, despite the need to publicize the Committee’s work on communications submitted by private parties that was covered in volume II.
4.The Chairperson invited the Committee to review the draft annual report chapter by chapter.
Table of Contents and Executive Summary (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Part. I)
5.Mr. Thelin said that given that some people only read the Executive Summary, that Summary should include the concerns set out in chapter I regarding staff resources and the resources needed to ensure that documents could be translated in good time into all the Committee’s working languages.
6. The Executive Summary was adopted subject to the in sertion proposed by Mr. Thelin.
Chapter I. Jurisdiction and Activities (CCPR/C/93/CRP.1/Add.1)
7.Mr. Thelin said that a reference to the translation problem should be added to paragraph 29. He also proposed adding the following wording to paragraph 35, which referred to the Committee’s request for the access of the public to be facilitated for public meetings: “The Committee regrets that to date nothing has been done to improve the situation.” He also wished to add a sentence on the possibility raised at the March meeting of transmitting public meetings over the WorldWide Web.
8.Mr. O ’ Flaherty said that Mr. Thelin’s suggestion could be taken up in a different way. The working paper drawn up by Mr. Shearer on the strategic approach to public relations recommended that public meetings should be broadcast on the Web. All that was needed then was to insert the gist of the recommendations made in the working paper into paragraph 34. Paragraphs 31 through 33 could then be deleted.
9.Mr. Amor asked whether it made sense to keep paragraph 30 on the emoluments of the Committee. Its contents had been kept unchanged for years and not had any effect, so that it could be considered to serve no purpose.
10.Mr. Thelin said that the paragraph should be kept because removing it would give the impression that the Committee no longer wanted the matter to be reconsidered.
11.Ms. Motoc (Rapporteur) agreed with Mr. Thelin’s proposal to mention the translation problem in paragraph 29, which referred to the shortage of staff resources, and to place greater emphasis on the importance of access to public meetings, including via live broadcasting over the Web. She also agreed with Mr. O’Flaherty’s suggested modifications to the section on publicity for the Committee’s work. A brief overview of Mr. Shearer’s media strategy would indeed be very useful. As to the question of keeping or removing paragraph 30, she would like to hear the opinion of other Committee members.
12.The Chairperson said that the Committee did not have time to discuss the emoluments issue in detail and suggested retaining paragraph 30 for the time being, if there was no objection. In the absence of any further comments, he concluded that the proposals to delete paragraphs 31 to 33 and to extend paragraph 34 had been adopted.
13.Ms. Keller suggested that the name of the rapporteur in charge of the draft revision of the general comment on article 19 should be added in paragraph 28.
14. It was so agreed.
15.Chapter I (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.1) was adopted as amended.
Chapter II. Methods of Work (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.2)
16.Mr. O ’ Flaherty said that he wished to be sure that the important decisions made by the Committee on the revised reporting guidelines and lists of issues prior to reporting (LOIPR) would be duly included in the final version of the report. Chapter II contained a whole series of paragraphs on activities carried out by the Committee to gauge the situation of civil and political rights in countries that had not submitted their country reports, which had nothing to do with methods of work. The paragraphs concerned should therefore be either moved or placed in a new chapter.
17.Ms. Prouvez (Secretary of the Committee) suggested deleting paragraphs 41 and 42, which gave background material, and moving the information on the review of the situation in countries that had not reported to Chapter III.
18. It was so agreed.
19.The Chairperson said that the current text of Chapter II did not highlight sufficiently the outcome of the work done on the revised guidelines and the LOIPR. It was simply mentioned in part A (under recent developments and decisions on procedures), whereas it deserved more prominence.
20.Mr. Thelin suggested adding a new part or subsection on those topics and letting the Rapporteur decide on a heading.
21. It was so agreed.
22.Chapter II (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.2) was adopted subject to the necessary amendments.
Chapter III. Submission of Reports (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.3)
23.Chapter III (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.3) was adopted subject to an editorial change in the English version.
Chapter IV. Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 40 of the Covenant (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.4)
24.Chapter IV (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.4) was adopted.
Chapter V. Consideration of Communications under the Optional Protocol (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.5)
25.Chapter V (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.5) was adopted.
Chapter VI. Follow-Up Activities under the Optional Protocol (CCPR/C/CRP.1/Add.6)
26.The Chairperson asked the Petitions Team to update the information in the “Follow-up dialogue ongoing” column in the table. The “Satisfactory response” column, which listed communications to which a satisfactory response had been received, on the other hand, could be removed from the table to prevent it from becoming too long.
27.Ms. Motoc (Rapporteur) agreed with the proposal.
28.Chapter VI (CCPR/C/CRP.1/Add.6) was adopted subject to modifications being made to the table.
Chapter VII. Report of the Special Rapporteur for follow-up on concluding observations (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.7)
29.Chapter VII (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1/Add.7) was adopted.
Annex I (CCPR/C/99/CRP.2/Add.1)
30.Ms. Motoc said that the date given for the entry into effect of the Covenant in Pakistan needed to be corrected. The date should have been 23 September 2010 and not 23 May 2010, which was the date the Covenant had been ratified. The figure given in parenthesis at the end of the heading of section A (indicating the current number of States parties) consequently needed to be changed from 166 to 165 to reflect the fact that Pakistan was not yet party to the Covenant.
31. Annex I was adopted as amended.
Annex II (CCPR/C/99/CRP.2/Add.2)
32. Annex II was adopted subject to the modification of certain dates.
Annexes III to VII (CCPR/C/99/CRP.2/Add.3 to 7)
33. Annexes III to VII were adopted.
34.The draft annual report of the Human Rights Committee (CCPR/C/99/CRP.1 and Add.1 to 7; CCPR/C/99/CRP.2 and Add.1 to 7) was adopted as orally amended and subject to the drafting amendments to be made by the Secretariat.
The meeting rose at 5.50 p.m.