Exchange between Samuel De Jaeger, UNDP Niger and Alfonso Barragues, OHCHR Geneva

[Facilitator’s Note: Please find below a mail exchange between Samuel De Jaeger, UNDP Niger and Alfonso Barragues, OHCHR Geneva, in response to the question on what suggestions members would make to Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures so that their concluding observations and recommendations provide practitioners with additional guidance on how to operationalize international human rights standards and principles in development programming ]

Dear Alfonso,

Thanks for making a reference to Niger’s experience concerning the right to food.
In response to your second question, sometimes a UNCT lacks guidance from Treaty Bodies and Speciual Procedures- in the absecece of state reporting and/or detailed information reaching these mechanisms.  In the case of Niger, for example, no concluding observations exist from the Committee on Ecnomic, Social and Cultrual Rights, nor from the Committee Against Torture, nor really from the Human Rights Committee (as the last HRC Concluding Observations date back to 1993 in a different political context).

In such a case, the UNCT is left with the Conventions, with rights included and guidance from general comments and/or other legal interpretations. 

For practitioners, it would be interesting, to get an overview not only of the rights (in their broad formulation), but also of their minimum content.  For example, the right to education, what aspects are compised?  The right to health, what minimum standards?

A reference work with all these rights and their minimum content (accodding to Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures) would be a useful tool for development practitioners.

Thanks,
Samuel

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Dear Samuel,

The point you raise regarding the operationalization of human rights norms and standards is core to a human rights-based approach to programming. Treaty Bodies issue general comments to clarify the meaning of international standards contained in their respective treaty. The Committe of Economic, Social and Cultural rights has issued a set of very important comments in that regard:

http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/comments.htm

In addition to their country reports, Special Procedure thematic mandate holders also issue annual as well as specific thematic reports in which they document examples of "good practices" and analyze specific challenges and developments regarding the operationalization of certain rights:

http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/special/annual.htm

I hope you will find this information useful

All the best

Alfonso
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Dear Alfonso –

Thanks for your helpful links to the Treaty Bodies general comments and the Special procedures annual reports. These are very interesting resources. However, the difficulty is their exploitation. For a development practitioner who is unfamiliar with the International HR Machinery, it may be difficult to find the parts of interest to his work.

A reference work, with the human right's article and immediately followed by a commentary would make it easier to understand the duty bearers obligations and specific rights of rightholders. For example, for the right to education, the work done by the late Special Rapporteur, Ms Katarina Tomashevski on the 4 A's: Access, Adaptability... it would make it easy and user-friendly to have a work with the right to education and immediately followed by the commentary of the SP or general comments by TB. And this could be done for all human rights.
A compendium of the human rights and their minimum normative content supposedly exist - a colleague of us, Patrice Vahard (PVahard@uneca.org) told me - but I've not been able to lay a hand on it.

Maybe it's an informal ressource of the OHCHR?

Thanks for your support

Samuel
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Dear Samuel,

It is true that TB General Comments- as well as observations and recommendations in general- tend to be written in legalistic terms, therefore being difficult to understand for development practitioners. I am afraid this type of language cannot be avoided because General Comments are precisely legal interpretation of legally binding international obligations. OHCHR and other UN agencies are producing specific tools to facilitate the understanding and applicability of TB and SP outputs. For example, WHO is working jointly with OHCHR in the production of a manual on Health, human Rights and Poverty which builds on the normative content of right to health as established in the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the clarification provided in general comment No. 14.  FAO, for example has developed a number of tools on right to food based on Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Right’s general comment No. 12 and many of the "good practices" on protecting and fulfilling the right to food, gathered by the Special Rapporteur on Right to Food in his visits to countries like Brazil, India, Uganda and South Africa.

Based on the guidance of human rights standards and the General Comments, OHCHR is in the process of developing sets of indicators to measure States' compliance with human rights, including on right to food, torture, life, participation in public affairs, rights in the administration of justice, education food and health.  

In conclusion, more tools are still required in order to maximize the use of the important output produced by Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures. However, the absence of a specific tool should not prevent you from using these comments, recommendations and reports as sources of technical assistance whenever an opportunity arises to influence legal, policy or institutional reforms, and UN programming processes at the country level. Your idea is well taken and will be shared with the concerned branches in OHCHR and colleagues from other UN agencies in the Action 2 Programme.

All the best

p.s. OHCHR has made a compendium of general comments. I will check with the colleague you mention in your email to find out whether we are talking about the same document

Alfonso Barragués
Human Rights Officer
RRDB/MDG Unit
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Palais Motta, Rue de Motta, 48
1202 Geneva, Switzerland