On 22 October 2018 Debra Long, Research Fellow at the Human Rights Implementation Centre, University of Bristol, and Professor Clara Sandoval-Villabal, Senior Research Officer at the Human Rights Centre, School of Law, University of Essex, held a briefing for members of the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) as a side event at the Committee’s 124th session in Geneva, Switzerland.
The briefing took place as part of the research activities of The HRLIP, a collaborative project between four leading Human Rights Centres (Bristol, Essex, Middlesex and Pretoria) and the Open Society Justice Initiative. The aim of the project is to examine the factors which impact on the implementation of decisions on individual communications of the UN treaty bodies and regional human rights bodies.
Under the HRLIP selected decisions of the Human Rights Committee on individual communications, as well as other human rights bodies, have been tracked to see the extent to which the States concerned have implemented them and why; to identify good practice as well as key challenges to implementation.
During the briefing on 22 October Debra Long and Prof. Clara Sandoval-Villabal presented an overview of the aims and activities of the HRLIP to date and a summary of the preliminary research findings. The briefing provided opportunity to discuss with members of the Committee and staff at the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights some of the challenges, as well as opportunities for follow-up of decisions on individual communications that have been identified through the HRLIP research.