Background Press Release: HRC Working Group on Communications to hold 10th session in Geneva from 23 to 27 April 2012

BACKGROUND PRESS RELEASE
20 April 2012

The tenth session of the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Communications will take place from 23 to 27, April 2012, in Geneva at Palais Wilson.

The five-member Working Group, which falls under the Council’s confidential Complaint Procedure, will hold private meetings throughout the week to examine and assess communications received from individuals or groups , as well as  non-governmental organizations, claiming violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. 

This unique procedure has competence to address consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of all human rights and fundamental freedoms occurring in any part of the world and under any circumstances.   So as to ensure that the Complaint Procedure is victims-oriented, efficient and conducted in a timely manner, the author of a communication and the State concerned are continuously informed of the proceedings at each stage.

At the conclusion of the weeklong session, the Working Group can decide to discontinue, keep under review or transmit to the Working Group on Situations communications, which, in the latter case, will share those cases with the Human Rights Council. 

Background

As a result of the review of the Complaint Procedure established in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1503 (XLVIII), the Human Rights Council, by resolution 5/1 of 18 June 2007, set up a new confidential Complaint Procedure as an integral part of its institutional architecture. Two distinct working groups, the Working Group on Communications and the Working Group on Situations, have been established with the mandate to examine the communications received under the Complaint Procedure and to bring to the attention of the Human Rights Council consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms occurring in any part of the world and under any circumstances.

The Working Group on Communications examines the communications received under the complaint procedure with a view to deciding on their admissibility and assessing the merits of the allegations of violations, including whether a communication, alone or in combination with other, appears to reveal a pattern of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In this connection, the Working Group on Communications provides the Working Group on Situations with a file containing all admissible communications as well as recommendations thereon. When the Working Group on Communications requires further consideration or additional information, it may keep a case under review until its subsequent session and request such information from the State concerned. The Working Group on Communications may also decide to dismiss a case.

The Working Group on Situations, on the basis of the information and recommendations provided by the Working Group on Communications, presents to the Council a report on consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms and makes recommendations to the Council on the courses of action to take.

The Working Group is composed of five members of the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee appointed for three years.  Their mandate is renewable only once.

Members of the Working Group meet twice a year for five working days each session. The proceedings of the Working Group are confidential and held in private meetings.

The membership of the Working Group on Communications is as follows: