Even Switzerland Complains About UN Treaty Bodies

By Terrence McKeegan, J.D. | 2011

NEW YORK, February 10 (C-FAM) Switzerland joined Russia and Egypt in pushing back against the increasing overreach of certain UN committees.  This occurred at a sometimes-contentious briefing for UN Member States on treaty body reform in January.

Treaty bodies oversee the implementation of various human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The human rights treaties authorize very limited powers to the treaty bodies, but many diplomats have privately expressed concerns that the treaty bodies have grossly exceeded their authority in recent years.

The chairman of the briefing asked Member States for additional time and money for the treaty bodies to meet. A delegate from Egypt demanded to know why the treaty bodies should get more time when they were carrying out so many “un-mandated activities.” This was a reference to the practice of the treaty bodies re-writing treaties and directing governments to change their laws. The chairman rather weakly responded that the un-mandated activities were not carried out during official meetings. 

Russia pushed the issue even further, asserting that treaty bodies were acting beyond their mandate, in particular by discussing thematic issues.  This was a reference in part to the dozens of interpretive general comments that the treaty bodies have released, a power not granted by any human rights treaty.

Switzerland, a country not usually disposed to question the increased powers of the treaty bodies, expressed concern that Member States were not being properly consulted by the treaty bodies in terms of recent treaty body reform statements.

In the past year, three major statements on treaty body reform have circulated into the UN system, although none of them were approved by UN member states.  One reform is to fold all treaty monitoring bodes into a single entity that has authority over all UN treaties. This idea was featured in the Dublin Statement, which was the brainchild of Michael O’Flaherty.  O’Flaherty was also the driving force behind the highly controversial Yogyakarta Principles of 2007, which call for sexual orientation and gender identity to be read into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

In 1984, Philip Alston, who would become one of the foremost experts on treaty bodies as well as a leading proponent in expanding their powers, wrote prophetically, “[I]n the course of the next few years, UN organs will be under considerable pressure to proclaim new human rights without first having given adequate consideration to their desirability, viability, scope, or form.”

Alston’s words were concretely realized in 1996, when a group of treaty body members, non-governmental organizations, and other UN officials gathered in Glen Cove, New York and plotted how to incorporate new rights into existing human rights treaties. Since that time, the treaty bodies have become increasingly aggressive in reinterpreting hard law treaties and in pressuring governments to change their laws based on the reinterpretations. 

The next major meeting on treaty body reform involving consultations with Member States will take place in May in Sion, Switzerland.

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