Treaty Body Reporting

 United Nations Human Rights treaties each have a committee to supervise State parties implementation. The following treaties all have committees to monitor their implementation:

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)

Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC)

Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)

Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT)

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)

 Convention on Migrant Workers 

These committees are known as ‘treaty bodies’. Treaty Bodies are comprised of a committee of independent experts appointed to monitor the implementation by States parties of the core international human rights treaties.

They are called 'treaty bodies' because each is created in accordance with the provisions of the treaty which it oversees.

Main functions of treaty bodies 

The main functions of treaty bodies include:

consider individual complaints

consider reports

conduct enquiries

elaborate ‘General Comments’

Treaty Body Reports by Australian Government

Under the harmonisation guidelines on reporting for the international human rights treaties, Australia's reports consists of the 'common core document' and the 'treaty-specific document'.  

 Common core document

 The common core document contains:

General information about the reporting State

General framework for the protection and promotion of human rights

Information on non-discrimination and equality, and effective remedies

 

Treaty-Specific document

Australia has legal obligations; under the treaties it is party to, to submit periodic reports to the treaty body committees.

These reports inform the treaty body of what Australia has done to implement the rights in the treaty.

Treaty body committees consider periodic reports from Australia about the measures they have adopted to carry out their obligations under the treaty.

Preparation of Australia’s report to a treaty-body committee involves the Federal Government, through one of its public service departments, preparing a comprehensive report on each of the human rights treaties Australia has ratified.

Preparation, submission and consideration of ‘parallel reports’ to Australian reports are an opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people/s to draw national and international attention to human rights violations in Australia.

Over the past decade, NGO submissions on Australia’s reports have successfully focused national and international attention on issues such as Native Title and mandatory sentencing, and the Northern Territory Intervention.

The treaty body reporting process is represented in the diagram below (insert the picture)

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Treaty Body Reporting Process

How to prepare a Parrallel Report