Preface
Introduction to Strengthening Engagement
In the 2005 World Summit Outcome, the UN member states in the General Assembly reaffirmed their commitment to "actively protecting and promoting all human rights" and to supporting "the further mainstreaming of human rights throughout the United Nations system, as well as closer cooperation between the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and all relevant United Nations bodies." This commitment requires increasing interaction and strengthened engagement with the existing international human rights machinery.
The term human rights machinery in this guide is used to refer to the UN Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures, both of which are supported by the OHCHR.
UN Treaty Bodies are committees of independent experts nominated and elected to monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties (see section below). Each Committee is linked to the human rights treaty that created them (for example, the Committee on the Rights of the Child was created by the Convention on the Rights of the Child).
UN Special Procedures refers to mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, which are mandated to investigate particular country situations or thematic human rights issues. Special Procedures can be either individuals (called "Special Rapporteurs", "Special Representatives" or "Independent Experts") or a working group composed of five members who are leading experts in a particular area of human rights. Special Procedures mandate holders are independent; they do not represent any particular country or region and are not UN staff members.
Strengthening Engagement means ensuring that UN practitioners and UN country teams (UNCTs) understand the role they can play in supporting Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures and vice versa, understanding the relevance of these mechanisms to their own work, and knowing how to use these mechanisms to further human rights and development goals at the national level. This guide provides practical ways to interact with both UN Treaty Bodies and UN Special Procedures.
The guide is divided into two parts: the first deals with UN Treaty Bodies and the second with UN Special Procedures. Each part provides a summary of the mechanism's activities and how you can best engage directly in that work, with case studies to illustrate examples of strengthening engagement. In addition, a practitioner's checklist (UNCT Checklist for Engaging with Treaty Bodies and UNCT Checklist Regarding Special Procedures) and useful weblinks are provided at the end of each section.Ratifications as of March 2008, Source see : http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/ratification/ , accessed January 2008 .