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Assembly agreed to create this position. The first appointee, José Ayala Lasso of
Ecuador, took up the post in 1994. Subsequently, Mary Robinson, the former
president of Ireland, was appointed in 1997, and Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil
was appointed in 2002. In May 2003, de Mello was asked by Secretary-General
Kofi Annan to take a four-month leave of absence from his position as high com-
missioner to serve in Iraq as Annan s special representative. Tragically, he was
killed in Iraq on August 19, 2003. Bertrand Ramcharan, who had been de Mello s
deputy, took over as acting high commissioner for human rights. In February
40 foundations
2004, the un General Assembly approved the appointment of Louise Arbour as
the high commissioner for human rights. Arbour has served as a Canadian
Supreme Court justice and as prosecutor in the war crimes tribunals for the for-
mer Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.
Other UN Bodies
Many other bodies within the United Nations also have human rights on their
agenda, and there is a web of complex interrelationships among them. It is easy
to suggest that human rights activities in the United Nations should be tidied up,
with clearer missions and better organization. However, the arrangements can-
not be compared with that of, say, a corporation, in which the directors can sim-
ply redesign the operations under their command. These United Nations bodies
have accumulated more than half a century of experience in response to a broad
array of di’
erent and often conflicting forces. United Nations operations in hu-
man rights are not yet based on a singular well-defined mission under a singular
authoritative command structure.
United Nations Treaty Bodies
As indicated earlier in this chapter, the two un covenants and five other inter-
national human rights treaties have corresponding treaty bodies (committees) in
the United Nations. The treaties established six of these, but the Committee on
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights was established by ecosoc. Operating pro-
cedures vary among the seven committees, but they have certain common fea-
tures. All are composed of independent experts rather than individuals repre-
senting particular governments. However, the distinction is sometimes blurred
(March and Olsen 1989, 30).
The committees central function is to monitor the situation within nations to
try to ensure that national governments e’
ectively implement their obligations
under the treaties they have signed and ratified. This is done largely on the basis
of reports the committees receive from the states parties to the conventions in ac-
cordance with procedures outlined in the conventions. The committees may also
receive information from other sources, such as United Nations specialized agen-
cies or civil society organizations, and they may, to a limited extent, make in-
quiries of their own. The treaty bodies are authorized to gather information, and
they are also authorized to express their views and state their findings.
As indicated in the last column of table 2.1, the Human Rights Committee
(hrc) may consider complaints from individuals. The committee accepts com-
plaints from individuals in states that are parties to the first Optional Protocol to
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (cescr) and the
Committee on the Rights of the Child have no procedures enabling them to re-
the international human rights system 41
spond to individual petitions. E’
orts are under way to implement an Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
that would allow the cescr to consider petitions from individuals.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women is now
also able to accept complains from individuals. An Optional Protocol for that pur-
pose was adopted by the un General Assembly in 1999 and entered into force in
2000.
The Committee on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (cerd)
and the Committee Against Torture (cat) can deal with complaints from indi-
viduals alleging violations of their rights under the relevant treaty. The Commit-
tee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]