Overview of the 133rd Session
Published on 10 Nov 2021, 12:03 PM
11 Oct 2021 - 5 Nov 2021
Review of Ukraine during the 133rd Session of the Human Rights Committee in November 2021. Unfortunately, civil society was not allowed to enter UN buildings to attend the session.
The 133rd Session of the Human Rights Committee was conducted in a hybrid mode. Most of the session was held in person, while it was complemented by online participation of some of the members of the Committee and the delegates of two States under review. This has been the first session held at least partially in person after the four online sessions held since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
The session was opened on Monday, 11 October 2021, by Ms. Photini Pazartzis, the Chair of the Committee, who stressed the transitional character of the session and underlined the importance of the in-person sessions of the Committee. She expressed the hope that the next session in March be held fully in person.
State reviews of Germany, Botswana, Armenia and Ukraine, and the adoption of LOIPRS
The Human Rights Committee reviewed Germany's seventh periodic report on the implementation of the ICCPR, as well as Armenia's third periodic report, Botswana's second periodic report and Ukraine's eighth periodic report. It also adopted the List of Issues Prior to Reporting on Azerbaijan, Greece and North Macedonia.
37 decisions adopted on Individual Communications
The Committee adopted 37 decisions on individual communications. From these, 7 were declared inadmissible, 11 were discontinued and 19 were decided on merits.
Regarding the cases which were declared admissible and declared on the merits, the Committee found:
- 15 violations,
- 4 non-violations.
Evaluation on Follow-up procedure
The State parties considered under the follow-up procedure to Concluding Observations were: Dominican Republic, Hungary, Jordan and Mauritius. The Committee was pleased to note good progress by these State parties in the implementation of the Committee's recommendations.
The Committee also revised and adopted its Guidelines on the procedure for Follow-ups to Concluding Observations, bringing them in line with its current practice, and extended the request for Follow-up information from 2 to 3 years with the view to ease the reporting burden on State parties.
Last but not least, the Committee adopted Progress Report on Follow-up to Views on: Finland, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Netherlands, Russian Federation and Uzbekistan.
Position taken by the Human Rights Committee on the treaty body strengthening process
During the 133rd Session the Committee declared to be supportive of collective efforts across Treaty bodies aimed at enhancing the effectiveness and coherence of the system. The Committee also stated it continues to have a coherent and sustained approach to the TBs Chairs' Common Vision of 2019 and through its efforts to harmonize working methods with other Treaty Bodies.
