REPORTING TO THE UN TREATY BODIES

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' (OHCHR) compilation of stakeholders' report for the universal periodic review is now available (HERE).  One of the items it reports on is Swaziland's commitment to reporting under the UN treaty regime.  In this regard, it states:

"[Amnesty International] noted that Swaziland had a poor record of reporting on the implementation of its international human rights treaty obligations.  [Joint Submission 1] recommended that Swaziland take its reporting obligations under the various international instruments seriously and report accordingly."

Looking at the OHCHR compilation of UN reports (HERE), it is hard to disagree with this argument.  At p 4, it has the following table:

Treaty body	Latest report  submitted and considered	Reporting status
CERD	1996	Fifteenth and nineteenth reports overdue since 2006
CESCR	–	Initial report overdue since 2006
HR Committee	–	Initial report overdue since 2005
CEDAW	–	Initial report overdue since 2005
CAT	–	Initial report overdue since 2005
CRC	2005	Combined second to fourth report due April 2011

Abbreviations:
CERD   Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
CESCR Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
HR Committee  Human Rights Committee
CEDAW  Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women
CAT   Committee against Torture
CRC    Committee on the Rights of the Child
CRPD  Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The committees have responsibility for overseeing their corresponding conventions.  The Human Rights Committee is the body which oversees the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

With four out of (a rather paltry) six treaties having never been reported on and the last report being six years ago, it is hard to say that a commitment to report is there. It will be interesting to see whether this is raised with the Swazi government during question time, which will happen on Tuesday 4 October 2011 3PM-6PM Mbabane time (GMT+2).  It can be watched here:

http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/index.asp