Document submitted for the Treaty Body Review Conference, Geneva, 8 – 9 December 2016 Do not circulate ______________________________________________________________________________ Expert Consultation Meeting United Nations Treaty Bodies and Latin American Experts San José, Costa Rica 19-20 November 2016 Reflection Document of James Cavallaro, President, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Topic: Complementarity of the UN and Treaty Body Systems Background: Over the past several years, the UN human rights system and the Inter-American system have taken important measures to enhance cooperation. An MOU signed on November 2014 with the High Commissioner for Human Rights1, formalized and strengthened practices between the Office of the High Commissioner and the Inter-American Commission. Topics in that agreement include the designation of contact or focal points for coordination; holding regular annual meetings and ad-hoc consultations, regular exchange of information, and collaboration on specific mechanisms and standard setting. Both bodies committed to considering the recommendations of each in their work and to reference the decisions and recommendations of the bodies of the other system in reports and action plans. The MOU also established specific cooperation activities, such as joint monitoring and training activities, joint press releases and joint public statements; possible joint country visits and collaboration in planning and organizing visits. In addition, the Parties agreed to establish a cooperation mechanism related to the implementation of recommendations issued by human rights treaty bodies and monitoring mechanisms and the IACHR. This same year, 2014, the Human Rights Treaty Bodies invited the IACHR to participate in its Chairperson’s annual meeting for the first time. In its Annual Report, the Human Rights Treaty Bodies made cooperation proposals to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights2. Among these, the need to establish bilateral contacts between United Nations treaty bodies and the Inter-American Commission by appointing a focal point in every treaty body to engage with the regional system to facilitate the exchange of information and communication, 1 Available at http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/media_center/PReleases/2014/137.asp 2 Note by the Secretary-General transmitting the annual report of the chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies. A/70/302 Available at http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/70/302, under “download the word document”. Cavallaro, 1 including confidential exchanges of information on specific cases, and to exchange good practices on working methods, using technological tools to deepen cooperation. This has been achieved, and both focal points met in Geneva in early October. In a meeting in October between Secretariats, it was agreed that there would be an exchange of personnel starting next year for approximately four months that would include training and exchange of information on case management. In 2015, the IACHR received the visit of seven UN rapporteurs, experts, and working groups.. The visits took place during the three periods of sessions held in 2015 and also between periods of sessions. The objectives of the visits were to further ties of cooperation, share experiences, and plan activities.3 During 2015, seven joint statements were released with the Special Procedures and different regional mechanisms.4 This cooperation alone represents an important advance in inter-institutional relations. There have also been important measures to promote a unity of purpose and statement of universal and regional bodies on important human rights issues. As such, we have established a firm basis for further, more intensive cooperation. I would like to suggest in this brief paper and 3 John Knox, Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, visited the IACHR on March 23. During the visit he emphasized the risk run by defenders of the environment and mentioned that climate change will be one of his priorities; Maina Kiai, UN Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, visited the IACHR April 21; Dante Pesce, representative for Latin America of the United Nations Working Group on the issue of Human Rights and Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises, visited the IACHR on June 30. During his visit joint courses of action were explored, especially with the IACHR Unit on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Maina Kiai, UN Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, paid a second visit to the IACHR. On this second occasion the meeting was held during the 155th period of sessions of the IACHR. The objective of this visit was to present his report Endangered: Human Rights and Natural Resources in the Americas; Christof Heyns, UN Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, visited the Secretariat on June 9. The objective of his visit was to share case-law, experiences, and information and to further ties, especially in relation to protection for the right to life; Michel Forst, UN Rapporteur on human rights defenders, visited the IACHR on October 20. During the visit he met with staff of the Executive Secretariat, especially with the support staff of the IACHR’s Rapporteurship on Human Rights Defenders; David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, visited the IACHR on October 26 to meet with the plenary of the IACHR; Dainius Pūras, UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, visited the IACHR on December 16, 2014. The purpose of the visit was to meet with various teams of the Executive Secretariat, to engage in joint planning of activities, and to seek the strengthening of standards in relation to the right to health; the Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law in practice visited the IACHR on December 11, the last day of their country visit to the United States of America. 4 One important priority of the IACHR has been to further ties with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other regional bodies. In late 2014 the IACHR received the Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities of the African Commission, with whom the Secretariat exchanged points and strategies for litigation related to protecting indigenous peoples. The Secretariat participated as a panelist in the Regional consultative meeting on strategic litigation in Africa for the advancement of sexual identity and gender identity/expression, organized by the non-governmental organization Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA), held in Johannesburg, South Africa, July 6 to 8, 2015; On September 15, a one-week visit began by senior staff of the Secretariat of the African Commission, including Ms. Mary Maboreke, Executive Secretary. On November 3, 2015, an initial thematic dialogue was held in Banjul, Gambia, among the African system, the inter-American system, and the United Nations on occasion of the sessions of the African Commission. Cavallaro, 2 intervention ways in which we may seek, aggressively, to enhance cooperation and protection of human rights in our region and beyond. Exchange of personnel While social media, the internet and technological advances have transformed global communications, interpersonal relations and face-to-face encounters still matter. Such encounters foster mutual understanding and meaningful cooperation in all areas and are essential for human rights bodies for a range of reasons of historic significance. Given the limited resources and challenges that that both universal and regional systems face in both finances and human resources, it is unlikely that we will have the means to promote interchange of Treaty body and Commission members as frequently we might like. [I note here that the concept paper and conference will consider ways in which academic institutions may be leveraged to promote greater interchange. While I fully support this idea and can commit to engage from my institution—Stanford University—the resource challenges remain significant.] One relatively low-cost method to promote institutional exchange would be for each body to designate an employee to work full-time at the site of the other body. (A first step has already been agreed upon with the exchange of a staff person, for two months. with the petitions section of Treaty Bodies). For instance, the Inter-American Commission might designate a full-time staff person to work on a full-time basis at the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, and vice versa. Each institution would pay the salary of its staff person. Each institution would provide physical work space and infrastructure for the staff person of the visiting institution. In this way, each institution would have a full-time person, fully informed and fully engaged with the work of the other system, indeed, embedded in that system, but charged with promoting engagement and cooperation from the perspective of her own institution. Over time, as this institutional exchange strengthens, we should expect more intensive institutional relations between the UN bodies and the Inter-American system that could strengthen and implement the 2014 proposals, and include: - Increased expert witness testimony of UN Mandate Holders before the Inter-American Commission and Court.5 - Presentations by Inter-American Commission experts on issues