Amnesty International and IWRAW-AP join initiative dedicated to strengthening UN Treaty Body membership

In the lead up to the elections of four United Nations treaty bodies which will all take place during the course of June (namely, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) on 14th, Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on 21st, Human Rights Committee (HRCttee) on 23rd and the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 30th), civil society organisations have come together to launch a common website- www.untbelections.org. 

Two ESCR-Net members, Amnesty International (AI) and International Women's Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW-AP) together with the Centre for Civil and Political Rights, Child Rights Connect and International Disability Alliance, seek to enable States and other stakeholders to better understand the skills and experiences of the current candidates running for election in order to strengthen treaty body membership by promoting a merit-based and transparent elections process.

The website serves as a portal regrouping information on the election process of each treaty body and on all candidates, including their own responses to a questionnaire which was disseminated to them in an effort to provide further details about each individual’s experiences and expertise in the respective field of human rights of the concerned treaty.   The received responses to the questionnaires have also been shared with all UN Member States ahead of the elections to encourage informed voting based on candidates’ qualifications.

The United Nations human rights treaty bodies are Committees of independent experts that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties. They were created in accordance with the provisions of the treaty that they monitor.  The independent experts of each Committee are nominated and elected by States Parties to the respective treaty.  For more information on the elections process, please consult the OHCHR website at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/Pages/ElectionsofTreatyBodiesMembers.aspx