CYIL vol. 12 (2021)

CYIL 12 (2021) States ’ reports under UN hr treaties: how to read overdue reports? Table 4: Overdue reports in the context

Share of reports which are overdue for less than 5 years on all overdue reports (%)

Share of reports which are overdue for more than 10 years on all overdue reports (%)

Share of reports which are overdue between 5 and 10 years on all overdue reports (%)

Total number of overdue reports

Share of States with reporting issue (%)

Entry into force of respective treaty

Number of State Parties

CERD CESCR

182 171 173

1969 1976 1976 1981 1987 1990 2002 2002 2003 2008 2010

96 79 18 74 65 56 40 54 18 55 14

53 46 10 39 38 29 24 31 32 30 22

32 47 67 77 55 71

18

50 44 17 17 16 45 56 8

9

CCPR

17 15 28 13 48 41

CEDAW 189

CAT CRC

171 196

CRC-OP-AC 170 CRC-OP-SC 176

8 4

CMW CRPD

56

100

0

0 7 0

182

60 64

33 36

CED

63

Source: Authors. Data valid to 30 May 2021.

The overdue reports burden two oldest treaties the most: the 1965 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (96 overdue reports) and the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (79 overdue reports). Also, other treaties adopted until 1990 (the CEDAW, CAT, and the CRC) show slightly higher numbers of missing reports in comparison with later conventions adopted after 2000 (the CRC-OP-AC, CRC-OP-SC, CMW, CRPD, and CED). There are only three rows in the table with significantly lower values: CCPR (18 overdue reports), CMW (18 overdue reports), and CED (14 overdue reports). Regarding the CED and the CMW, those two conventions entered into force only recently, 2003 and 2008 respectfully (i.e., the reporting obligation of states lasts a shorter time than in case of obligations formed earlier). Moreover, their lists of State Parties are distinctly shorter (56 and 63 State Parties) than the others, which oscillate between 170 and 196 participants. The 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights with only 18 owed reports (and 173 State Parties) is another argument against formulating an unequivocal rule that time worsens the reporting issue and that older treaties are connected with more delayed reports than recent documents. To research the relationship between the age of the treaty and the non-reporting burden more precisely, the share of states with reporting issue is calculated as a total number of overdue reports divided by the number of State Parties (each State Party may owe one or no report; if a deadline for submitting a report is not met, the committee notices a delay but does not ask for the following report before the previous one is delivered). The share as a relative value represents the reporting unwillingness in relation to particular treaties. The arithmetic

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