Submitted by crinadmin on
Every member state of the UN has ratified at least one of the seven international human rights treaties, and over 81 per cent of member states have ratified four. The "concerted effort" to ratify treaties and their protocols, called for ten years ago at the World Conference on Human Rights, has to some extent been heeded, with a 32 per cent increase in ratifications. Although no treaty has achieved universal ratification, the Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by all but two member states. In September 2002, the Secretary-General presented a document entitled "Strengthening of the United Nations: an agenda for further change", which contains two specific proposals aimed at relieving the "reporting burden" on states: "First, the committees should craft a more co-ordinated approach to their activities and standardize their varied reporting requirements. Second, each state should be allowed to produce a single report summarizing its adherence to the full range of international human rights treaties to which it is a party". These suggestions have focused debate on report models and treaty body working methods, and will be the subject of further attention at the 58th regular session of the General Assembly. The emphasis during the current reform discussion on state reporting has detracted attention from other weaknesses of the system, for example, chronic under-funding. It has also obscured the many achievements of the system, such as the elaboration of General Comments and the formulation of views about individual complaints, both of which have positively affected human rights protection, at the international as well as at country level. AI has contributed to the treaty system for many years, from campaigning for the elaboration of the treaties, to reporting on their implementation. In its document entitled "Proposals to strengthen the human rights treaty bodies", AI Index: IOR 40/018/2003, the organization highlights some fundamental principles underlying the treaty system which should be reinforced during this reform process, including in relation to the role that can and should be played by civil society.