The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, with the support of the Academic Platform Switzerland UN, today convened an expert meeting on the independence of the UN treaty bodies.
Providing a critical assessment from civil society, the ICJ’s UN Representative spoke of the legal and policy challenges in the proposal to establish a code of conduct for treaty body members. His intervention posited that:
- The General Assembly’s intergovernmental process on the strengthening of the treaty bodies has no legal competence to establish or impose a code of conduct for treaty body members;
- A request by the intergovernmental process for treaty bodies to themselves establish a code of conduct would be inappropriate and inconsistent with the framework of the human rights treaty bodies; and
- Such a request is also unnecessary.
The ICJ’s intervention reflects its submission to a civil society consultation on the intergovernmental process.
ICJ-TBStrengtheningCSForum-legal submission (2012) (download in PDF)