Overview of the 134th Session of the Human Rights Committee (28 Feb - 25 March 2022)
Published on 25 Mar 2022, 03:09 PM
ICCPR scrutiny in five countries took place, while the review of Russian Federation was postponed until July 2022
The Human Rights Committee conducted its 134th Session from the 28th of February to the 25th of March 2022.
State Reviews of Qatar, Israel, Iraq, Bolivia & Cambodia and adoption of List of Issues
The Human Rights Committee adopted Concluding Observations after the constructive dialogues regarding the initial report of Qatar, the fifth report of Israel, the sixth periodic report of Iraq, the fourth report of Bolivia, and the third report of Cambodia.
The Committee also adopted the List of Issues in relation to the State reports of Brazil, Egypt and Turkmenistan.
Review of Russian Federation postponed
The review of the eight report of the Russian Federation was scheduled to take place on the 3rd and 4th of March 2022. The Human Rights Committee regretted that the delegation could not travel to Geneva to participate in the review of the State party’s periodic report.
In a statement, the Human Rights Committee expressed “extreme concern at the ongoing military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation conducted in breach of the fundamental principles of the United Nations, including the prohibition of the threat or use of force.” Fay Pazartzis also reminded that Russian Federation has ratified the ICCPR and urged the State to take all measures necessary to comply with its obligations, in particular with the right to life, the supreme right from which no derogation was permitted, even in situations of armed conflict.
The Committee postponed the review of the Russian Federation at its 135th session that will take place in July 2022.
Follow-up to Concluding Observations and Views
The Committee adopted a report on Follow-up to Concluding Observations concerning Australia, Lebanon, Guatemala, and Norway.
It also adopted a report on Follow-up to views concerning individual communications regarding Canada, Cameroon, Colombia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Russian Federation and Tajikistan.
The reports on Follow-up will be available soon here.
The Committee will review its guidelines on the procedure for follow-up to Views at its 135th session.
Forty-eight decisions adopted on Individual communications
The Committee adopted 48 decisions on individual communications. From these, 10 were declared inadmissible, 16 were discontinued and 22 were decided on merits.
Regarding the cases which were decided on the merits, the Committee found:
- 21 violations
- 1 non-violation