To promote and monitor the implementation of the human rights enshrined in human rights international  instruments, United Nations Member States, with the support of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have developed a system of human rights bodies and associated mechanisms. Some of these bodies are charter-based, and some are treaty-based. For legally binding human rights instruments, the mechanism includes a requirement for the State to report to the relevant organization on its progress towards implementing each treaty.

Other monitoring mechanisms exist to promote and monitor the implementation of other treaties and soft law (non-binding) instruments relating to international migration law (IML), including:

United Nations human rights mechanisms
Charter-based bodies

One of the charter-based bodies is the Human Rights Council (HRC). It is an intergovernmental forum of 47 elected United Nations Member States, responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights worldwide, and addressing situations of human rights violations with specific recommendations. It meets at the United Nations Office in Geneva ten weeks a year (in three sessions) to discuss all thematic human rights issues and specific country situations requiring attention.

The HRC Complaint Procedure addresses consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of all human rights occurring in any part of the world and under any circumstances. Complaints are submitted by individuals, groups or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that claim to be victims of human rights violations or that have direct, reliable knowledge of such violations. Under the auspice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Secretariat, the procedure is confidential and led by HRC States through the Working Group on Communications and the Working Group on Situations, which can report to the HRC.  After examining the report of the Working Group on Situations, the HRC decides on how to proceed.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a State-driven process of human rights review that happens under the auspices of the HRC. The review is based on an interactive dialogue between the State reviewed and the other United Nations Member States. The State reviewed has an opportunity to declare what actions it has taken to fulfil its obligations under human rights law. Recommendations from peers are included in the outcome report, and the State reviewed decides on whether to accept them or not. The report is then adopted at a plenary session of the HRC.

The Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council are mechanisms through which independent human rights experts have a mandate to report and advise on human rights. They might do so from a thematic or a country-specific perspective. These experts are unpaid and elected by HRC Member States for 3-year mandates, which can be renewed one time only. In 1999, the HRC appointed a Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants for the first time. The rapporteur’s responsibilities include:

  • Undertaking country visits;
  • Acting on individual cases and issues of a broader, structural nature by sending communications on alleged violations to the concerned State;
  • Conducting studies and convening expert consultations;
  • Contributing to the development of international human rights standards;
  • Engaging in advocacy, public awareness and providing advice for technical cooperation.

The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants reports to both the HRC and the United Nations General Assembly.

Treaty-based bodies

The treaty-based bodies are committees of experts created by States under the provisions of specific human rights treaties. The Committees monitor the implementation of the respective treaty by States parties. Each human rights treaty body monitors one of the nine core international human rights instruments; the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture also establishes a separate committee of experts.

Table
Table 4. Treaty-based bodies

TREATY-BASED BODIES
Human Rights Committee (CCPR)
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
Committee against Torture (CAT)
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW)
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED)
Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (SPT)

The tenth treaty body, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) established under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), monitors places of detention in States parties to the Optional Protocol. As well, it supports the establishment and functioning of national mechanisms to prevent torture.

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State reports and the committee’s concluding observations

Each treaty body is composed of independent experts that meet to consider States parties’ reports, as well as complaints or communications when allowed under the respective mandate. The reports by States are periodic and focus on how the rights enshrined in the relevant Convention have been implemented in that period. The review process includes discussions between the committee and a State party’s delegation in open and private sessions. It also includes the consideration by the committee of other reports and exchanges (confidential and public) with other United Nations agencies and NGOs. Based on the dialogue, the committee will then publish its concerns and recommendations, referred to as “concluding observations”, for each State being reviewed.

To Go Further

Increasingly, the rights of migrants – as they are human rights are addressed not only by the Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW), but also by other treaty bodies, through both their concluding observations to States parties’ reports and the individual complaint procedures. These treaty bodies include the Human Rights Committee (CCPR), the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Committee Against Torture (CAT) and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) .

Image / Video
Figure 2. The reporting cycle under the international human rights treaties
Source

Based on Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), 2015b.

Treaty-based bodies also issue general comments that interpret, in more detail specific, articles of the respective convention for which they have a mandate. These comments provide guidance to States on how to implement the convention in a specific context and shed light on the specific meaning of treaty provisions. Examples of these general comments are included throughout EMM2.0 chapters to help identify policies and measures that are in line with international standards.

Example
Example of how general comments interpret and guide implementation of a convention

In its General comment No. 14 [on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health], the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) clarified States’ legal obligations to provide migrants in an irregular situation with equal access to preventive, curative, and palliative health care services. States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have the duty to provide timely and appropriate health care; access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation; an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing; healthy occupational and environmental conditions; and access to health-related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health.

Source

United Nations Human Rights Regional Office for Europe, 2019.

 

Complaint mechanisms

There are three main procedures for bringing complaints of violations of the provisions of the human rights treaties before the human rights treaty bodies:

  • Individual communications;
  • State-to-State complaints;
  • Inquiries.

For migrants who claim their right(s) under one of the treaties have been violated, the individual communication is the most directly relevant procedure.

As of April 2019, eight of the human rights treaty bodies receive individual complaints, while the individual complaint mechanism for the Committee on Migrant Workers (CMW) has not yet entered into force. Anyone claiming that their rights under the relevant treaty have been violated can lodge a complaint with one of the eight committees against a State that is party to the treaty in question (through ratification or accession).

Third parties may also submit complaints on behalf of an individual, if the individual provides written consent.

After the complaint is registered, the State party concerned has an opportunity to comment on the complaint, and the individual will have an opportunity to comment on the State party’s observations. After this process, the committee considers the admissibility of the case by looking at:

  • Whether the complainant (or the person on whose behalf the complaint is brought) is a victim of the alleged violation;
  • Whether the alleged violation falls within the treaty and whether the State that allegedly committed the violation has ratified and/or is a party to the treaty, and therefore bound by it;
  • Whether the complaint relates to events that occurred after the entry into force of the complaint mechanism for the State concerned;
  • Whether the alleged violation is sufficiently substantiated, and if all domestic remedies have been exhausted;
  • Whether any other international body is considering the same complaint.

If the case is admissible, the committee considers its merits and decides on the case. The case is closed if the complaint is inadmissible or no violation is found. If the committee discloses a violation by the State party of the complainant’s rights under the treaty, it invites the State party to supply information, within a set time frame, on the steps it has taken to give effect to the committee’s findings and recommendations.

Example
When returning a migrant violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

In many communications, the claim before the treaty body is that the decision to return a migrant constitutes a violation of specific rights protected by the Convention. For example, in the case of X v. Sweden (ECtHR, 2018) and Warda Osman Jasin v. Denmark (CCPR, 2015) the Human Rights Committee (CCPR) considered whether the return of migrant(s) would lead to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and would thereby constitute a violation of article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In A. B. v. Canada (CCPR, 2016) CCPR considered whether the decision to return constituted not only a violation of article 7 but also interference with the right to family life, as laid out in article 17 of the ICCPR.

To Go Further
International labour standards mechanisms

The International Labour Organization (ILO) supports mechanisms to promote States’ compliance with international conventions on labour law. These mechanisms include the regular supervisory system and special procedures (that is, complaints, representations, and freedom of association procedures).

Table
Table 5. International labour law compliance mechanisms
REGULATORY SUPERVISORY SYSTEM Member States submit periodic reports on the measures they have taken to implement the ratified conventions. The reports are examined by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, and employers’ and workers’ organizations are able to comment.
SPECIAL PROCEDURES

Complaints

In case of non-compliance of a Member State with an ILO convention, the complaints procedure entitles another Member State that has ratified the convention to file a complaint before the governing body. The governing body may form a commission of inquiry to investigate the issue and publish a report with recommendation to the concerned State.

(Regulated by articles 26–34 of the ILO Constitution)

Representations

Industrial associations of employers or workers can submit representations to the governing body when “any of the Members has failed to secure in any respect the effective observance within its jurisdiction of any Convention to which it is a party” (article 24 of the ILO Constitution). A tripartite committee of the governing body will publish a recommendation for the concerned State on the ILO website. If the State’s response to this report is considered insufficient, a committee of experts may be asked to follow up on the case, which eventually may lead to a complaint (see above).

Freedom of association

Any representation regarding Convention no. 087 on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize (1948) and Convention no. 098 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining (1949) is usually referred to the Committee on Freedom of Association. Employers’ and workers’ organizations can bring complaints to the Committee independent of whether the concerned country has ratified the conventions. Once it receives a complaint, the Committee will enter into a dialogue with the government of the State to investigate the case. In case of a violation, it will issue a report and provide a recommendation to the non-complying State. On several occasions, the Committee has held that the right to freedom of association includes migrant workers, both documented and undocumented (see for example Report no. 353, case no. 2637, para. 1051; Report no. 362, case no. 2637, para. 90, and Report no. 355, case no. 2620, para. 706).

 

Key messages
  • International human rights bodies monitor the implementation of human rights treaties through different mechanisms. These mechanisms promote and strengthen the protection of human rights, and they also address situations of human rights violations via specific recommendations and procedures.
  • Treaty-based bodies are committees of independent experts that address a specific human rights treaty. Each committee monitors the implementation of its treaty and analyses States’ periodic reports on how the treaty is being implemented at the national level. Some committees also have a mandate to admit complaints submitted by, or on behalf of, individuals or States. They provide recommendations and issue general comments in which they interpret and provide guidance on how to better implement the treaties.
  • Charter-based bodies include the Human Rights Council, Special Procedures, the Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure, and the Universal Periodic Review.
  • The International Labour Organization supports supervisory mechanisms that monitor the implementation of international labour laws.
  • Instruments related to international migration law (IML), whether legally binding or non-binding, usually impose a reporting obligation on States and/or require a review process to monitor the progress and implementation of the instrument. Mechanisms that promote and monitor these IML instruments also exist, therefore, and are run under the auspices of the organization responsible for that instrument.
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