Tom Hayes
Ceist:40 Mr. Hayes asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the United Nations proposals to strengthen the human rights treaty bodies. [26808/03]
Written Answers. - Human Rights Issues.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, in his 2002 report on strengthening the United Nations, identified universal ratification and implementation of the human rights treaties as central to the strengthening of national systems for the promotion and protection of human rights. The process of treaty implementation, in particular the preparation of states parties reports to treaty bodies, follow-up measures to recommendations of treaty bodies and responses to individual complaints, is a critical mechanism for encouraging legislative, policy and programmatic change at national level.
Ireland, together with our EU partners, believes that the treaty monitoring bodies are a key element of the human rights protection system of the UN and strongly supports their activities as well as their ongoing contacts with states parties. The functioning of the treaty bodies is currently facing several challenges, which affect the effectiveness of the system and the efficiency of the treaty bodies. Ireland believes that it is the treaty bodies themselves, the secretary-general of the UN and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights which should lead the process of improving the functioning of the treaty bodies, with the support of states parties. However, the treaties themselves must not be re-opened for negotiation and the integrity of the treaty bodies must be respected throughout the reform process.
The review of the treaty body system has been discussed by states and by the treaty monitoring bodies themselves. Discussions have focused on alleviating the reporting burden of states parties, eliminating repetition in reports submitted under different treaties and allowing treaty monitoring bodies to improve their deliberations. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is to produce draft guidelines for an expanded core document, to be used by all the treaty bodies, as well as harmonised guidelines for reporting by states. The core document, regularly updated, will embrace substantive issues common to more than one treaty and will be followed by periodic, focused reports under each treaty body.