32 BOX 3 An overview of the guidelines on the independence and impartiality of the human rights treaty bodies The Addis Ababa guidelines, which are annexed in full below (see annex I), contain general principles to assist treaty body members and other stakeholders, and a section on the application of these general principles. The general principles provide, in brief, that: ✔✔Treaty body members should not only be independent and impartial, but should also be seen by a reasonable observer to be so. ✔✔A treaty body member shall not be considered to have a real or perceived conflict of interest as a consequence of his or her race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, colour, descent, or any other basis for discrimination. ✔✔Treaty body members are accountable only to their own conscience and the relevant treaty body and not to their State or any other State. ✔✔The fact that a treaty body member is a national of one or more States shall not result in, or be thought to result in, more favourable treatment of any of those States. ✔✔Treaty body members shall avoid any action in relation to the work of their treaty body that might lead to, or be seen by a reasonable observer to lead to, bias against States. During their informal consultations in January 2014, the Chairs of the human rights treaty bodies referred to the Addis Ababa guidelines in a joint statement: The independence and impartiality of treaty body members is of utmost importance. The Addis Ababa guidelines on the independence and impartiality of members of the human rights treaty bodies were agreed upon and endorsed by all treaty body chairpersons at the 24th meeting of chairpersons in 2012. All the treaty bodies apply the principles of the Addis Ababa guidelines in their rules of procedure and/or practice. Observance of the principles of independence and impartiality [is] under the continual and effective scrutiny of the treaty bodies. The treaty bodies have traditionally promoted the awareness of treaty body members of their compliance with appropriate norms and procedures to maintain the independence, impartiality and objectivity of their work, as determined by the individual treaty bodies or adopted collectively.