Following their annual meeting held 27-30 July, the Chairs of the Human Rights Treaty Bodies sent their written contribution to the co-facilitation process on treaty body review 2020.

Among other priorities, the Chairs made the following proposals to strengthen the treaty body system effectively:

  • Aligning the working methods
  • Providing adequate financial and human resources to fulfill the various mandates of treaty bodies
  • Establishing predictable review cycles in accordance with a fixed calendar for all States parties, even in absence of a State report
  • Introducing a focused review to replace every second review, consisting of a visit of 1 member to engage with the State (slightly different from the civil society proposal)
  • Making the Simplified Reporting Procedure by default for all periodic reports as well as for initial reports if decided by the treaty body
  • Encouraging reviews in-countries/regions
  • Creating a digital portal for individual communications and urgent actions
  • Planning for the contingency of no in person meetings before 2021 based on online experiences including intersessional activities, bearing in mind that online work can only be a supplementary tool but should not replace in person meetings
  • Providing a Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) at 20 per cent of the usual rate for experts who reside at the place of the meeting including for online work during the COVID-19
  • Ensuring online accessibility for experts with disabilities

In addition, the Treaty Bodies have established an informal Working Group on COVID-19 to develop a joint response on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on human rights:

Find all documents here and learn more about Child Rights Connect contributions to the 2020 review.