REPORTING TO THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS TREATY BODIES TRAINING GUIDE: Part I — Manual As to the reporting procedures, all States are required to report periodically both to the Treaty Bodies (under those international human rights treaties which a State ratified or acceded to) and the Human Rights Council (under the UPR) on their progress in meeting their human rights obligations or commitments. This gives an important opportunity to the State for the following: 1. self-assessment of its performance in complying with treaty provisions, recommendations and decisions and overall in realizing human rights and identifying any remaining gaps and challenges; 2. stimulation of national dialogue and buy-in with all relevant stakeholders on international and regional human rights obligations and commitments in preparation of reports, reinforcing national ownership of human rights; and 3. benefitting from good practices from other countries and expert advice through active engagement with the international human rights system. Reviews by the UN human rights Treaty Bodies and the UPR should complement and reinforce each other. While the UPR reports cover all human rights issues, the treaty-specific reports comprise issues relevant to the specific treaty, and therefore tend to be more specific and analytical. Each mechanism makes use of reports and recommendations from the other mechanism to obtain a comprehensive picture of the human rights situation in the State under review. The UPR review and recommendations often follows up on Treaty Bodies’ concluding observations, and vice versa. 1.2. International human rights treaties International human rights law lays down obligations for States. They are enshrined in international human rights treaties binding only on those States which consent to be bound by them (State parties). The United Nations human rights Treaty System comprises nine treaties, usually referred to as the “core international human rights treaties”, which together form the cornerstone of all efforts to promote and protect human rights at national and international levels, as follows:2 Two Covenants, namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), cover the broad range of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. Together with the UDHR the Covenants form the “International Bill of Rights”. Three treaties address specific phenomena, namely the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT), and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED). Four treaties address the human rights of specific groups, namely the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Member of Their Families (ICMW), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). 4 2 For a brief description of the content of each treaty please refer to OHCHR, The United Nations Human Rights System, Fact Sheet No. 30/Rev. 1, available at: https://goo.gl/yOOaLV