The United Nations Human Rights Committee
| Published date | 01 March 2015 |
| Author | Cees Flinterman |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934411503300102 |
| Date | 01 March 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Part A: Column |
Netherlands Qu arterly of Human Ri ghts, Vol. 33/1, 4–8, 2015.
4 © Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands.
PART A : COLUMN
THE UNITED NATIONS
HUMANRIGHTS COMMITTEE
SOME REFLECTIONS OF A FORMER MEMBER
C F
e Human Rights Comm ittee (HRC) is the second oldest of the ten presently exist ing
United Nations human rights treat y bodies. It was established in 1977 with t he entry
into force of the International Covenant on Civil a nd Political Rights (ICCPR, New
York, 1966). e main mandate of t he Committee is the examinat ion of the initial and
periodic reports of the 167 States that a re party to the Covenant and the considerat ion
of complaints coming from individuals in those States Parties that have also rati ed
the Optional Protocol to the C ovenant (New York, 1966). I had the privilege of being
elected to the Human Rig hts Committee in 2010. I joined the Committee in 2011 a er
having nalised my eight years membership of the United Nations “Committee on
the Elimination Against Women” (CEDAW, 2003–2010). To my great regret, I was
not re-elected to the Human Rig hts Committee in 2014 leaving me only one term
in the Committee but a lso giving me the opport unity to re ect on four of the most
interesting and demandi ng years (2011–2014) of my career.
e Committee is composed of 18 members sitting in t heir personal capacity.
In the election of members consideration should be g iven by States to an equitable
distribution of membership and to t he representation of the di erent forms of
civilisation and of the principal legal systems (Article31 ICCPR). Regrettably the
Committee has only a ver y limited number of Asian members; presently on ly one,
a highly renowned professor of international law from Japan, Yuji Iwasawa. It would
be very important for the authority and image of the Commit tee to have some more
Asian members, thereby re ecting the universal nature of the human rights covered
by the Covenant. Most of the members are law yers; this is of great relevance in lig ht of
the quasi-judicial role the Committee is playing in respect of i ndividual complaints.
Experience over the past four years , however, has convincingly shown me how
important it can be to a lso have a few non-lawyers in the Committee. Care should,
of course, be taken that all members fully meet the criteria of membership, which
are a high moral cha racter and recognised competence in t he eld of human rig hts
(Article28 of the Covenant).
In the history of the Committee, I was the second Dutch member; the rst one
was Joseph Mommersteeg who served on the C ommittee from 1987 until 1990. So far
the Dutch Government has been very mode st, too modest I would say, in nominating
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