Background

A group of 20 researchers, under the guidance of late and much missed Prof Christof Heyns and Prof Frans Viljoen,  from the University of Pretoria, and Prof Rachel Murray (HRIC) conducted an independent academic study in collaboration with the OHCHR into the domestic impact of the UN human rights treaty system. The study covers the 20 countries where the researchers are based, and is a follow-up to one conducted under the same leadership, also in collaboration with the OHCHR, two decades ago, covering the same 20 countries.

The new study is the most comprehensive research project of its kind that has been undertaken, in terms of its geographical span and the number of treaties covered, and the only such study that compares its findings with a baseline, namely the study of 20 years ago (Heyns and Viljoen, The impact of the United Nations human rights treaty system on the domestic level (Kluwer 2001)).

As part of the process, a series of workshops were organised in collaboration with the Geneva Academy bringing together the country researchers.

Outputs

The book will reflect the outcomes of the new study and will set out the position in each country in question. Additional chapters offer conclusions about the factors that have an influence, positive or negative, on the impact of the system, based on the 20 country studies. It will also reflect proposals for reform. As in the first book, there will be a strong emphasis also on identifying good practices.

One objective of the study is to serve as a basis for those engaged in the practice and the reform of the treaty system, also in the context of the current process of treaty system reform. However, the ultimate aim is long term, namely as a resource in the years to come for those who want to gain a thorough, evidence based, understanding of the way in which the treaty system influences the behaviour of states and others worldwide.

The study has also started to stimulate parallel studies on countries beyond the 20 covered by the study, conducted by independent researchers working on their own, based on the same template as the core study.

In this regard students on the Human Rights Law Clinic at the University of Bristol Law School conducted research on several countries and their reports will be part of an Impact Database.

The aim is to use the study as a launching pad for a website on which information and primary sources on the impact of the system in as many countries as possible will be posted and updated on an ongoing way, using inter alia crowd sourcing. The objective is thus to set up a global ‘go-to’ source for those who want to track impact, and have information from the ground level available, that they want to make accessible.