A YEAR IN REVIEW 2020 - An Overview of the jurisprudence of the UN Treaty Bodies
The 2020 Yearbook analyzes the main development of the jurisprudence of the UN Treaty Bodies
The Centre for Civil and Political Rights is proud to provide the publication "A year in review", a TB Net initiative that provides an overview of the recent jurisprudence of the UN Treaty Bodies.
2020 was undoubtedly a challenging year, and it was no different for the United Nations Treaty Bodies. However, amidst the complexity and difficulty introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, most UN Treaty Bodies were able to continue their work on the adoption of individual communication views. Indeed, while most maintained a similar caseload to previous years, the Committee on the Rights of the Child was able to exceed its average caseload.
With the goal of providing human rights defenders with an up-to-date view of the approach of each Treaty Body on relevant human rights issues, we have sought to summarize the pertinent legal issues explored in each key case, as well as provided a general overview of the work carried out by the Treaty Bodies in 2020 such as follow-up activities and reporting on views previously adopted. We created this document to highlight the cases that we feel most noteworthy and identify important trends in UN jurisprudence, as there were over 180 individual communications reviewed by the UN Treaty Bodies throughout 2020. With the goal of providing human rights defenders with an up-to-date view of the approach of each Treaty Body on relevant human rights issues, we have sought to summarize the pertinent legal issues explored in each key case, as well as provided a general overview of the work carried out by the Treaty Bodies in 2020 such as follow-up activities and reporting on views previously adopted.
We are confident that, as a continuation of the project started with the 2019 Yearbook, and with the hope that this publication will reach even more members of civil society, it will serve as a useful tool to assist human rights defenders with their litigation strategy on a global scale, and thus contribute to the further realization of human rights throughout the State parties.
