The UN Human Rights Committee welcomes the participation of non-governmental organisations during the State reporting process.
However, national NGOs are often not acquainted with the procedures and the different ways on how to engage in an efficient manner with UN human rights mechanisms.
In order to facilitate the engagement of national NGOs with these procedures, the Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR-Centre) trains national NGOs working on human rights prior to the examination of their respective countries by the Human Rights Committee. The CCPR-Centre provides legal and technical training on State reporting procedures and ICCPR provisions, successful lobbying strategies and pertinent written contributions. In addition, these trainings target a large number of NGOs at national level, with the aim of creating long-term human rights coalitions that will monitor the implementation of the Concluding Observations issued by the Human Rights Committee at national level.
Check our section on NGO reporting in order to learn how NGOs may contribute to the State reporting process.
The CCPR-Centre also contributes to conferences and training programmes organised by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and by other international NGOs.
Pursuant to article 40 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), States have an obligation to submit periodic reports to the Human Rights Committee on the implementation of the Covenant at national level. The Committee also welcomes written information from civil society during the State reporting process. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) may submit alternative reports to the Committee, which follow the same structure and topics as the information provided by the State under review, but from the perspective of the civil society.
There are three different stages at which NGOs may participate during the reporting process:
The Centre for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR-Centre) provides technical assistance to NGOs throughout the process providing its expertise in the area of civil and political rights and guiding NGOs on how to draft specific, reliable and objective reports to the Human Rights Committee.
To find which countries will be soon reviewed by the Human Rights Committee click on next sessions.
Select your country in order to find out NGO submissions and official documentation submitted to the Human Rights Committee during different reviewing cycles.
The CCPR-Centre has published Guidelines on the Reporting Process to the Human Rights Committee in English, French and Spanish. These Guidelines are intended for NGOs and give an overview of the reporting process and the role of the NGOs in this process, including in the follow-up to the Concluding Observations.