D. Promotion of human rights

88. The human rights machinery of the United Nations, through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Commission on Human Rights and the treaty body system, has helped Member States meet their obligations to international norms and standards. To improve and strengthen this machinery, the Member States agreed in the World Summit Outcome to significantly bolster OHCHR and to create the Human Rights Council to replace the Commission on Human Rights. [37] With the recent establishment of the Human Rights Council, a streamlining of the various mandates is expected, as the General Assembly in the founding resolution asked the Council to "assume review and, where necessary, improve and rationalize all mandates, mechanisms, functions and responsibilities of the Commission on Human Rights, in order to maintain a system of special procedures, expert advice and complaint procedure [...] within one year after the holding of its first session" [38]

89. As the architecture of the human rights machinery is being improved by this process, Member States should conduct a thorough examination of existing mandates that request reports or other forms of documentation. Reporting requirements in the area of human rights are particularly important, as they are one of the primary means through which human rights are monitored and Member States held accountable for fulfilment of their treaty obligations. Currently, however, the large volume of documentation not only overwhelms both the Secretariat and the Member States, but also obscures the issues under consideration. To ensure that these reports continue to be useful tools to allow Member States to promote and protect human rights, and to ensure that the new human rights machinery is not plagued by a similar problem, immediate action can be taken.

Reporting requirements

90. While some mandates requesting reports and other forms of documentation stem from the principal organs, most originate from the Commission on Human Rights, its subsidiary bodies, or treaty bodies. Therefore, it is necessary that the analysis in this section include mandates from subsidiary and treaty bodies, in addition to those from the principal organs.

91. As is the case with other issue areas, there is an over-proliferation of mandates requesting reports in the area of human rights. The severity of this problem can most easily be grasped by looking at the sheer volume of mandate-related documentation in this area. For example, in compliance with mandate-related reporting obligations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights prepared or submitted in 2004 over 44,000 pages of documentation in original languages. Because OHCHR services 11 reporting obligations of States parties under the 6 international human rights instruments and their optional protocols relating to the activities of treaty bodies and their complaint procedures and mechanisms, over half of these pages consisted of States parties"reports and communications to treaty bodies.

92. Given the enormous volume of documentation, the translation burden placed on the Secretariat is very heavy. In 2004, for example, over 4,000 pages of summary records for Charter-based and treaty bodies had to be translated into all official languages. Similarly, well over 1,000 pages of notes verbales (so-called "non-documents" from Governments or Permanent Missions were received by OHCHR and had to be translated into one of the three working languages of the Commission on Human Rights.

93. A number of concrete and immediate measures can be taken to reduce the excessive volume of documentation and overburdening translation requirements. First, a mandate could be issued to limit to 30 pages the length of the treaty body reports to the General Assembly or the Economic and Social Council. As for summary records, a General Assembly resolution limiting the number of languages in which they are issued could very significantly reduce the translation burden placed on the Secretariat. In addition, Governments should submit their notes verbales in one of the working languages, or attach to their notes verbales the English translation of the materials they are sending for publication.

94. There is however another important issue besides the large volume of documentation, and that is the problem of overlapping reports, which, in addition to draining staff time and resources, obscures the substantive recommendations of the reports. There are, for example, potentially overlapping reporting requirements within thematic and geographic areas. Thematic or geographic areas with the most reporting obligations pertaining to human rights include: status of treaties (18 reporting obligations), racism (8 reporting obligations), and indigenous issues (5 reporting obligations). To address this issue, the relevant mandates should be further examined by the Member States with the aim of reducing redundancy in a balanced way that takes into account the different priorities across the membership. For example, in cases where both the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner are mandated to report on the same subject but to different organs (for example to the General Assembly, the Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-Commission, etc.), the reporting obligations could be consolidated. Similarly, in cases where both a special procedure mandate holder and the Secretariat (the Secretary-General or the High Commissioner) are mandated to report on the same subject, the reporting obligation of the Secretariat could be reconsidered, unless the Secretariat is requested to report on a particular aspect.

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