CYIL vol. 14 (2023)

CYIL 14 (2023) STREAMLINING OR SURVIVAL? OUTCOMES OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS … internal processes streamlined. Inspiration can be drawn from processes at different national

courts or from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. 4.3 Relevance of the outcome towards the system’s challenges

Having discussed the three main areas relevant to the outcome, it should be clarified how the outcome could affect the major challenges of the system identified and discussed in chapter 2. Even though much will depend on the implementation of the measures, such an exercise can help in understanding whether the measures even aim at tackling the main problems of the system. First, growth of the system by additional ratifications of states every year is partially dealt with by extending the cycles of reviews to eight years. It seems that the committees will have more time to deal with the growing number of state parties. However, the wider capacity of the system would be tangible only if the fixed calendar were not introduced and if states kept their approach of late reporting. In connection with the predictable schedule, the longer cycles would not help to tackle the problem of the system’s growth as compared to the current state: meeting time would have to be extended to cover all the states participating in the system. 73 Second, states’ compliance with their reporting obligations is extremely low . The only measure that would help to improve or solve this issue is the introduction of the comprehensive reporting calendar. Unless states become willing to support it, this major issue remains untouched. Third, treaty bodies have a considerable backlog with regard to state reports . In this respect, the longer review cycle could help to tackle it. Until the fixed calendar is introduced, it could provide some additional capacity and when it is introduced, there would be no backlogs because all stages of the procedure need to be set in advance. Fourth, inefficiencies in dealing with individual communications will need to be handled by the OHCHR. As there was positive language in the last resolution of the General Assembly with respect to the use of digital technologies by the treaty bodies, 74 there could also be financial support from the UN, for example for the new digital case management system. Nevertheless, streamlining processes for handling individual communications is not a task that could be solved overnight but is rather a continuous process. Fifth, similarly to the numbers of individual communications, the committees’ backlog with respect to the communications is also rising. According to available data, the committees would need 6.5 years to clear it. 75 If we take into consideration that the numbers received every year are actually not very high, 76 compared to e.g. the European Court of Human Rights, 77 this level of backlog needs to be seen as unprecedented. The planned digital uplift has the potential to deal with this issue. Sixth, the system puts a high burden on states . Extending the review cycle from four to eight years might help to partially ease the reporting situations of states. Nevertheless, if the fixed calendar is introduced in future, all states will 73 According to current calculations, meeting time would increase by 23%. See Secretary-General report 2022 (n 7), para. 73. 74 UNGA Res. 2022 (n 58) para. 6. 75 Secretary-General report 2022 (n 7) para. 21. 76 The average number of registered communications by all committees during 2020–2021 was 358. See Secretary General report 2022 (n 7) para. 19. 77 The ECtHR had 44300 applications allocated to a judicial formation in 2021. See ‘Analysis of statistics 2021’ (2021) ECtHR, p. 7.

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