United Nations Human Rights Committee

Description

The Human Rights Committee, or CCPR, is a UN expert body monitoring the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

It reviews periodic reports that states parties submit on their civil and political rights record, and adopts concluding observations with findings and recommendations after each review. It also receives individual complaints from people who say their rights under the Covenant have been violated, and issues general comments that interpret specific articles of the treaty.

The Committee was established under the Covenant, a treaty adopted in 1966. It has eighteen independent members serving four-year terms, elected by the states that have ratified the treaty. It meets three times a year, in Geneva and New York, for four-week sessions.

Non-governmental organizations and other civil society groups can submit their own reports, comment on state reports and attend Committee sessions as observers. The Committee is one of ten United Nations human rights treaty bodies, each overseeing a different human rights treaty.