CYIL vol. 14 (2023)

JAN LHOTSKÝ be stimulated to fully cooperate. Therefore, this measure would lower the burden of mainly the states who cooperated responsibly with the treaty bodies already within the 4-year cycle. Seventh, the problems of overlaps and duplication seem to be untouched. During the process a single report to all treaty bodies was considered 78 but it was not supported by the chairs. Therefore, the outcomes do not contain any significant new plan on how different treaty bodies could cooperate more closely in order to keep track of their quasi-jurisprudence or to avoid duplication of information requested from the states by different committees. Eight, the issue of independence and expertise of some treaty body members was not part of any measures planned to be implemented either. The selection remains fully in the hands of states and their diplomats as negotiators. The following table shows an overview of the extent to which the measures supported address the real problems of the system. Table 2: Anticipated effects of the outcome to the challenges of the treaty body system 79

Considerable improvement

None

Limited improvement

Growth of the system in relation to its capacity • due to longer review cycles Backlog of reports • due to longer review cycles Inefficiencies in dealing with individual communications • due to the expected digital uplift Backlog of communications • due to the expected digital uplift High burden of states • due to longer review cycles States’ compliance with their reporting obligations is extremely low • no relevant measure Overlaps or duplication • no relevant measure Independence and expertise of treaty body members differs • no relevant measure No improvement

Deterioration

None

After the overview of all reform measures and suggested recommendations by stakeholders, it is clear that a great number of measures have already been proposed. The results of the

78 Optimizing the UN treaty body system (n 44), pp. 7, 17–21. 79 The respective set of challenges is described in chapter 2.

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