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concerned and prepare their findings for consideration by the committee.
This process may or may not involve a visit to the State party concerned.
✔✔ Head of a delegation for a visit – if a treaty body undertakes an inquiry
that includes a country visit, the visiting delegation is normally led by
a head of delegation. The head of delegation provides guidance in
relation to the substance and organization of the inquiry or visit and
leads discussions with all counterparts. The head of delegation is also
responsible for delivering the report on the visit and presenting it to the
treaty body for consideration and adoption.
✔✔ Country rapporteur (visits) – for its visits, the Subcommittee on Prevention
of Torture appoints a country rapporteur, who is expected to establish
and build relations with States parties to the Optional Protocol as well as
with the national preventive mechanisms, examine the annual reports of
these mechanisms and prepare substantive papers in preparation for the
visit, with the assistance of the secretariat. During the visit, the country
rapporteur draws up the initial conclusions and subsequently presents
them to the Subcommittee.
✔✔ Rapporteur on reprisals – most treaty bodies have appointed rapporteurs
on reprisals. Such rapporteurs bring cases of alleged reprisals or threats by
States against human rights defenders who have assisted their respective
treaty bodies to their attention. On the advice of the rapporteur, the treaty
body takes appropriate action, such as corresponding with the State party,
issuing a statement and/or recording the allegation in its annual report.
✔✔ Members may also take on additional roles and responsibilities, such
as being a member of an ad hoc working group on procedural and
substantive issues.
B. Workload
Potential nominees should be aware of and consider the typical workload of a
treaty body member. There are expectations that each member will be present in
Geneva at least during the entire plenary sessions of the respective treaty body
and, in some cases, also for pre-sessional working groups (see table 7 for an
overview of the current sessions per treaty body23).
23
It should be noted that committees convene additional, ad hoc meetings, which are not reflected in the table.
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