[prisoner-rights] CAT 37th session: Committee against Torture discusses outcome of Meeting on Treaty Body Reform

Committee against Torture 
MORNING 
16 November 2006 

The Committee against Torture this morning, during a brief public session,
considered the results of the International Meeting of Experts on Treaty
Body Reform (Malbun II), which took place on 14 and 15 July 2006.

Presenting the outcome of the meeting, Claudio Grossman, Committee Member,
noted that the proposal of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on a
permanent unified conventional body which would replace all the existing
treaty bodies did not meet with approval from the regional groups present
at the meeting. The suggestion to create a single unified body to study
communications also met with a certain amount of resistance. The most
positive outcome of the meeting lay in the proposals made on reinforcing
harmonisation of the methods of work of the different treaties.

Several members of the Committee also expressed themselves on the results
of the meeting. The Committee is scheduled to resume its discussion on
this topic at a later date.

The next meeting of the Committee will be at 3 p.m., when it will hear the
answers of the Hungarian delegation to the questions raised yesterday
during the first part of the consideration of the fourth periodic report
of that country.

Discussion

CLAUDIO GROSSMAN, Committee Expert, presenting the results of the
International Meeting of Experts on Treaty Body Reform (Malbun II), which
took place in Malbun, Liechtenstein, on 14-15 July 2006, as summarized in
a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations from the Permanent
Representative of Liechtenstein (A/61/351), said that Louise Arbour, High
Commissioner for Human Rights had made a proposal on a permanent unified
body which would replace all the existing treaty bodies. This proposal did
not meet with approval from the regional groups present at the meeting,
and the concern was expressed that such a unified mechanism could decrease
the protection given to certain particularly vulnerable groups such as
women and children.

Further, some feared that a permanent mechanism could lead to a sort of
"Human Rights Super-Court".

The suggestion to create a single unified body to study communications for
all the treaty bodies also met with resistance, Mr Grossman said. The most
positive outcome of the meeting lay in the proposals made on reinforcing
harmonisation of the methods of work of the different treaty bodies. A
proposal was also made to institutionalise the meetings of the
Chairpersons of the treaty bodies.

Although the proposal of the High Commissioner on a permanent unified
conventional body had not met with consensus, some Experts underlined that
this should not stop the High Commissioner from continuing consideration
of the matter.

Among the measures that could be taken with regards to follow-up on these
issues, a representative of the High Commissioner said, was the
possibility of organising, in 2007, a meeting on communications. A new
document which would include the proposals made by the treaty bodies
themselves could also be prepared.

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For use of the information media; not an official record.