International Service for Human Rights

On 3 April, the Human Rights Committee finished its 95th session after three weeks of meetings in New York. It reviewed State party reports from (Australia, Rwanda, and Sweden), but at the request of Chad, decided to defer consideration of this State until its next session in July 2009. Chad's absence enabled the Committee to make some headway in addressing its backlog of communications, but it acknowledged that the backlog remains significant.

In a number of meetings to review its methods of work, the Committee also considered issues such as: how to strengthen the follow-up procedure to individual communications under the first optional protocol, and whether it should amend its rules of procedure to set time limits for the submission of these communications. Although several Committee members were keen to take action to improve the efficiency and transparency of the Committee's work, discussions about its methods of work remain ongoing. ISHR will soon publish a report outlining developments in the Committee's review of its methods of work.

The Committee's 96th session will be held in Geneva from 13-31 July 2009. It will review reports from Azerbaijan, Chad, the Netherlands and the United Republic of Tanzania. The Committee's Taskforce will meet to consider and adopt a 'list of issues' on reports submitted by Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, New Zealand and Uzbekistan. The Committee will also consider a number of individual communications in closed
meetings during the session.