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.

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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 of concern to Treaty Bodies especially in relation to concluding observations, general comments and general debate days. - Joint missions to countries by Inter-American and United Nations Treaty bodies experts

5 In recent years, these UN authorities have provided expert testimony before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Martin Scheinin, Leandro Despouy; Param Cumaraswamy; James Anaya; Gabriela Rodriguez Pizarro; Juan Mendez; Christof Heyns; Christian Courtis; Juan Carlos Murillo; Paul Hunt

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- Joint sessions of Treaty Bodies and the Inter-American Commission (described below) To the extent successful, this institutional exchange might increase, such that each body might send a second or third person to coordinate efforts in the other body’s central offices (Geneva, Washington). For example, there might be a staff person of Treaty Bodies, or of one particular Treaty Body, located at the Commission in an interchange with a staff person of the Inter- American Commission. This model might also be applied to other regional systems, such as the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Participation in Hearings of the Inter-American Commission Over the years, the Commission has received visits of United Nations Treaty Bodies, generally, in private sessions with Commissioners and high level Executive Secretariat personnel. As noted above, in 2015, the Commission received visits from seven UN human rights experts. During its April 2016 sessions, the Commission received a visit from the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, Ms. Dubravka Šimonović. Special Rapporteur Šimonović participated in a hearing on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Girls and Women in Canada. This was a public hearing in which the State and representatives of civil society also participated. Ordinarily, public hearings before the Commission involve two parties and the Commission. The two parties are representatives of civil society and the State. In the hearing on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Girls and Women, there were three parties: civil society, the UN Special Rapporteur, and the State of Canada. This is a possible model that could be followed with experts from the Treaty Bodies System. In other words, in future hearings, the Commission might invite Treaty Bodies experts to participate as a third party. In schematic terms, this arrangement is pictured below:

UN Expert

State reps Civil society reps

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Commissioners/Exec. Sec.

In a similar vein, Treaty Bodies might invite the Inter-American Commission to be present or to have a representative make a presentation during their sessions.

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Alternative Model Above, I describe a model of participation of UN experts (from Treaty Bodies, or Special Mechanisms) that includes the universal system experts in effect, as third parties. Alternatively, we might imagine another model which involves greater coordination between the regional and United Nations systems. This model would recognize the similarity in functional terms between the UN Treaty Bodies and the Inter-American Commission. Thus, rather than including the UN experts as a third party, we might imagine a structure that includes the UN experts as co-conveners or special invitees of the Commission, such that these experts act jointly with the Commission. In this model, rather than a third party, the UN experts (Treaty Body member or representative or Special Rapporteur/Special Mechanism representative) would be seated jointly with the Inter-American Commission. We might then provide an opportunity for the UN Treaty Body representative to pose questions to the two parties (Civil Society representatives and State representatives) much as Commissioners now do in hearings. Below, is a visual representation of how this might be structured.

State reps Civil society reps

Commissioners/Exec. Sec. UN Treaty Body

Again, in this same vein, UN Treaty Bodies might invite Inter-American Commission members of representatives to participate in their hearings.

Implement the exchange of information and Commission’s participation in the Treaty Bodies mechanisms If we could receive a calendar of the different activities of Treaty Bodies at the beginning of the year, we could share our information and participate when possible in the treaty body reporting procedures, in the process of elaboration of general comments or days of debate. At the same time, the IACHR would share its information as soon as it becomes available abut thematic reports or cases we are working on, as well as hearings we will be celebrating, among others.

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