Toolbox for alternative reporting
on
Human Rights Committee and the
Committee on the Rights of the Child
[Updated
In June 2004,
By acceding to these treaties,
Thai human rights and children’s organisations will
no doubt be interested to submit information to the Committees within their
area of expertise.
Burmese organizations in
This toolbox contains some suggestions on how people can take part in the
reporting process and provides links to documents and other resources.
The Human Rights Committee
The Human Rights Committee is expected to examine Thailand’s
initial report at its 84th session (11-29 July 2005) in Geneva, and organizations
with knowledge of the situation of civil and political rights in Thailand should
submit relevant information to the Committee by 18 March 2005 in order to
have input into the list of issues sent by the Committee to the Government.
Material sent later, up until 11 July 2005, will not be reflected
in the list of issues, but will be read by the Committee. [this para updated,
The main reason for submitting information to the Committee
is not to criticize the report, but to help the Committee in its task of
working for an improvement in the human rights situation in
Suggested steps in preparing submissions
1) Read the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
2) Read the Fact Sheet on the Human Rights Committee
(updated version, see link below) and explore the Committee’s website;
3) Identify areas where your input can contribute to the
overall process;
4) If you can work with other organisations
to produce a consolidated report, this would help the Committee.
Submitting information to the Human Rights Committee
Reports and queries should be sent by email to Mr Patrice Gillibert, at pgillibert@ohchr.org
[this
information updated,
Coming to
Those able to come to
Documents
Key
documents
1)
2)
3) The International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm
4) The Constitution of the
http://www.kpi.ac.th/en/con_th.asp
5)
http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/THAILAND's_Nationality_Act.htm
Guideline documents
1) Human Rights Committee Web page
http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/
2) The (updated) Fact Sheet on the Human Rights Committee
http://www.ohchr.org/english/about/publications/docs/fs15.pdf
3) Thai legislation page (Library of
Congress)
http://www.loc.gov/law/guide/thailand.html
Committee on the Rights of the Child
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (“the CRC”, “the
Committee”) will examine Thailand’s 2nd
periodic report (“the current report”)
in January 2006 and invites
organizations with knowledge of the situation of children in Thailand to submit
relevant information, taking into account the current report and the situation
of children in Thailand. To enable the Committee to use this information in the
pre-sessional meeting dealing with
The main reason for submitting information to the Committee
is not to criticize the current report, but to help the Committee in its task
of working for an improvement in the situation of children in
Suggested actions
1) Read the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (the Convention),
2) Read the NGO Guide,
the CRC General Guidelines for periodic
reports and look at a couple of recent NGO reports (links to NGO reports on
Norway and South Korea are given below)
3) Identify areas where your input can contribute to this overall process. In
1998 the Committee examined
4) If you can work together with others to produce a
consolidated report, this would help the Committee.
5) Approach your reporting:
a) From your own expertise and knowledge of the
situation of children in
b) From
c) From the CRC
documents on
d) From the guidelines published by the CRC and
the NGO Group for the CRC. Take the CRC General
Guidelines for periodic reports
and see which, if any, of the requests made to governments have been answered
in the current report. These General Guidelines,
produced to help States in their reporting, group the articles of the
Convention into eight clusters, which are also followed, more or less, in the
report. Your own report(s) should use
these clusters as a framework (as recommended in the NGO Guide on reporting to the CRC, pg 5, under "putting
together a report")
Bring these two angles together when you prepare your
report, which might cover a range of themes or a single issue. In length it
might be from one to thirty pages.
If you would like your information to be
incorporated into a consolidated report (recommended by the Committee), contact
human rights and children’s NGOs in
Submitting information to the CRC, and for any queries
By email to Laura Theytaz Bergman,
NGO Group for the CRC at ltheytaz@pingnet.ch
Attending the pre-sessional
meeting (3-7 October 2005) and the 41st session (January 2006)
Organisations which submit written material to the Committee
may be invited to attend the pre-sessional meeting in
Documents
Key documents
1)
(received on
http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Thailand2nd.pdf
The report will also appear in due
course on the CRC website at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/crc/doc/future.htm
2) Concluding Observations of the
Committee on the Rights of the Child:
Subjects of concern, suggestions and recommendations based on the
examination of the initial report. This document, along with the General Guidelines, should be
2) List of issues to be taken up in consideration of the initial report
of
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/crc/doc/issues/list-thailand-1.pdf
3)
(submitted in September 1996 and considered by the Committee in October
1998)
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CRC.C.11.Add.13.En?Opendocument
4)
To be read alongside the reports http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/2618198217c6efc1c125642d004e8478?Opendocument
5) The Convention on the
Rights of the Child
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm
6) The Constitution of the
http://www.kpi.ac.th/en/con_th.asp
7)
http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs3/THAILAND's_Nationality_Act.htm
Guideline documents
Which will help you in structuring your
submission
1) CRC web-page
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/crc/
2) CRC General Guidelines for
periodic reports
The structure and themes that the State reports
should follow, and which NGO reports should also use. http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/CRC.C.58.En?OpenDocument
3) NGO Group for the CRC
http://www.crin.org/NGOGroupforCRC/
4) NGO Guide on reporting to the
CRC (NGO Group for the CRC)
Most points in this toolbox are expanded in the NGO Guide http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/NGOCRC/NGOCRC-Guide-en.pdf
(pdf)
http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/publications/NGOCRC/NGOCRC-Guide-en.doc
(Word)
5) Alternative NGO reports
which
may serve as examples
NGO report on
http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.24/NorwayNGO.pdf
NGO report on
http://www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.32/South.Korea_ngo_report.pdf
Toolbox assembled by
David Arnott,
85, Rue de Montbrillant,
1202
Tel/Fax (+41-22) 733 2040
Email darnott@iprolink.ch
Website http://www.burmalilbrary.org
Updated