Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables, Figure, Appendices
- Notes on Contributors
- Editors' Preface
- Table of Treaties
- Table of Cases
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 The UN human rights treaty system: A system in crisis?
- A The UN human rights monitoring system in action
- B National influences and responses
- C Regional and sectoral comparisons
- D Common challenges for the treaty bodies
- E Looking to the future
- Index
Editors' Preface
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables, Figure, Appendices
- Notes on Contributors
- Editors' Preface
- Table of Treaties
- Table of Cases
- List of Abbreviations
- 1 The UN human rights treaty system: A system in crisis?
- A The UN human rights monitoring system in action
- B National influences and responses
- C Regional and sectoral comparisons
- D Common challenges for the treaty bodies
- E Looking to the future
- Index
Summary
In human rights terms the twentieth century yielded a valuable legacy of internationally agreed standards and the creation of a set of institutional arrangements designed to monitor compliance with those standards. But the overriding challenge for the future is to develop the effectiveness of those monitoring mechanisms. Many of the most important standards have been incorporated into the six ‘core’ United Nations human rights treaties. They are the two International Covenants dealing respectively with civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights; two anti-discrimination conventions dealing with racial discrimination and discrimination against women, and conventions against torture and on the rights of the child. A separate supervisory body has been set up in relation to each of these treaties and it is those ‘treaty bodies’ that form the focus of the present volume.
Their work is important, and the system as a whole has great potential. However, there are major challenges confronting the human rights treaty regime. The problems facing each of the committees individually are exacerbated by declining support for multilateralism in general and constant budgetary pressures on international organisations. In addition there is deep-seated ambivalence on the part of many governments when it comes to the strengthening of mechanisms which might enhance their accountability for compliance with their international human rights obligations.
This volume contains detailed analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the system, written by many of the leading participants in the work of the treaty bodies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Future of UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring , pp. xv - xviPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000