CYIL vol. 14 (2023)

JAN LHOTSKÝ appreciation to all those who worked hard to achieve a maximum under the current political circumstances. One of the former members of the Human Rights Committee, Professor Olivier de Frouville, said: “ Today, being a member of a treaty body feels like being a passenger aboard the Titanic: the ship is sinking, but the orchestra continues to play! ” 107 The major challenges of the treaty body system have been well known for more than two decades. However, they have been repeatedly discussed with little tangible action. The states have created the system and ratified the treaties, but it seems that too many of them prefer to have a weak and inefficient mechanism rather than a functional one monitoring their compliance with the universal human rights treaties. The system thus correlates with the state of human rights and democracy in the world, which has been deteriorating in recent years. 108 The way forward in the short-term is to convince UN member states to support introducing the comprehensive reporting calendar and to digitalize and streamline the procedure of handling individual communications. In this respect, it is crucial that the leadership of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights sees streamlining of the system as a priority. The position of the treaty body chairs should be fully supported and proposals from the High Commissioner Navi Pillay from 2012 that have not been implemented yet are to be reconsidered as they are still relevant. Apart from this, a new date for a future review of the system in 2030 should be set. Nevertheless, in the long-term the approach should be more ambitious. Under the current wording of the treaties, an Integrated Treaty Body System could be introduced which would bring more integration and coordination among different treaty bodies and at the same time would enhance its capacity to deal with state reports as well as with individual communications. In addition, the proposed measures would lower the burden of states and increase the level of independence and expertise of future treaty body members. We have seen that major reforms in human rights area are possible. In 2006, the UN established the Human Rights Council with the UPR as one of its most important functions. In 2010, Protocol no. 14 came into effect at the European Court of Human Rights, which streamlined the process of dealing with individual applications by introducing a new judicial formation. We know what the problems of the treaty body system are and we know how they can be dealt with. In this respect, various stakeholders can do their part, but the most significant share of responsibility lies with the UN member states.

107 DE FROUVILLE, O., ‘The Committee System: 2020 and Beyond’ (2019) OpenGlobalRights accessed 26 February 2023. 108 See the following reports. ‘A new low for global democracy’ (2022) The Economist accessed 26 February 2023. Also ‘Freedom in the world 2022’ (2022) Freedom House accessed 26 February 2023, p. 2.

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