Treaty Body Strengthening: Joint NGO Open Letter to Member States of the UNGA

The end of the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly is fastapproaching. States have an important opportunity to conclude theintergovernmental process on treaty body strengthening that was established inFebruary 2012 through the adoption of resolution 66/254. The non-governmentalorganizations listed below call on all States to decide now to conclude the processin December 2013.

This is a key opportunity for States to take the necessary substantive andbudgetary decisions to strengthen the system without further delay. States havedebated some good proposals in the context of the intergovernmental process.Many of these will require budgetary action by the General Assembly and thusneed to be finalised in time to be included in the general budget for 2014-15.

For years, the treaty bodies have faced many challenges in fulfilling theirmandates, including through backlogs, insufficient meeting time, non-reporting andlack of implementation. These challenges continue, with the High Commissionerfor Human Rights describing the system as having reached its limits.

We therefore call on States to conclude the process by the end of the year so thatthose initiatives that enjoy broad support can be implemented to the benefit of thetreaty bodies and rights holders everywhere.

Signatory organizations
• Amnesty International
• Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR)
• Child Rights Connect
• Human Rights Watch (HRW)
• International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT)
• International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
• International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP)• Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI)
• Organisation Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT)