The Dublin Statement on the Process of Strengthening of the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System
| Author | Michael O'Flaherty |
| Published date | 01 March 2010 |
| Date | 01 March 2010 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/016934411002800109 |
| Subject Matter | Part C: Appendices |
Netherlands Q uarterly of Human R ights, Vol. 28/1, 116–127, 2010.
116 © Netherla nds Institute of Huma n Rights (SIM), Printed i n the Netherlands.
PART C: APPENDICES
tHe DUBlIn stAteMent on tHe
PRoCess oF stRengtHenIng oF
tHe UnIteD nAtIons HUMAn
RIgHts tReAtY BoDY sYsteM
M O’F*
1. INTRODUCTION
e rst United Nations human rights treaty body c ommenced its work in 1970.
By 2009, there are n ine treaty monitoring bodies and a total of 145 members. We
are now just four rati cations away from the creation of the 10th treat y body under
the Internat ional Convention for t he Protection of All Persons from E nforced
Disappearance. In September 2009, t he Optional Protocol of the Covenant on
Economic, Social a nd Cultura l Rights opened to signature. In December 2009, an
Intergovernmental Working Group met to discuss the establishment of an Optional
Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that would deal with individua l
complaints. All but one of the treaty bodies review periodic repor ts submitted by
States, most issue Genera l Comments or Recommendations regarding the provisions
of the various treaties a nd many consider individual communications and u ndertake
inquiries, while one operates la rgely throug h eld missions. ey carry out the se
functions pursu ant to committee-specic ru les of procedure and with the support of
a UN secretari at.1
It has long been recognised that the treaty bod ies would benet from institutional
and other form s of reform in order to render them more ecient and eective.2 e
* Initiator of the Dublin Statement proces s; Professor of Applied Human Rights and Co-d irector, e
Human Rights Law Centre, Universit y of Nottingham, the UK; and member of the (United Nations)
Human Right s Committee. Al l internet sites were last ac cessed on 1 Feburary 2 010.
1 For more information on the United Nations huma n rights treaty body sy stem see www.ohchr.org/
EN/HRBodies/Pages/HumanRightsBodies.aspx.
2 O’Flaherty, Michael and O’ Brien, Claire, ‘Reform of U N Human Rights Treat y Monitoring Bodies:
A Cr itique of the Concept Paper on the High Commissione r’s Proposal for a Uni ed Sta nding
Treaty Body’, Human Rights L aw Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 141–172, at p. 141.
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