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occasion, OHCHR may invite a member to participate in an event such as a panel
discussion of the Human Rights Council or an OHCHR-sponsored seminar, either
as representative of the treaty body or in an independent capacity. Such events
can be useful to ensure synergies between the work of treaty bodies and other
human rights bodies and mechanisms, such as the special procedures.
Once a year, normally in June, the Chairs of all treaty bodies hold a joint meeting
for five working days. Generally speaking, the meeting provides a forum for the
Chairs to discuss their work and consider ways to make the treaty body system
more effective. The agenda for the meeting changes from year to year but typically
includes issues such as the streamlining and overall improvement of the reporting
procedure, harmonization of methods of work, follow-up to world conferences and
joint statements. The meeting is an official meeting of the United Nations and the
Secretary-General transmits its report to the General Assembly.
C. Working with OHCHR
All treaties stipulate that the Secretary-General must provide the treaty bodies with
the necessary facilities and resources for their work. As a result, the SecretaryGeneral has designated OHCHR as the secretariat of the 10 treaty bodies. In
practice, the secretariat’s work is carried out in the Human Rights Treaties Division
of OHCHR. The relationship between OHCHR and the treaty bodies has evolved
over the years and can today be described as a genuine partnership. OHCHR
provides direct support for treaty body sessions and visits but also assists the
treaty bodies in many other ways, for example, through its field presences and
its research capacity, by raising the work of the treaty bodies in the universal
periodic review and through advocacy by the High Commissioner. In turn, the
work of the treaty bodies is one of the fundamental pillars of the work of the High
Commissioner and OHCHR, by providing expert and authoritative clarifications
of treaties and country analyses and recommendations that provide an objective
guide for the Office’s work. For example, the concluding observations of treaty
bodies are taken into account in the formulation of the OHCHR quadrennial
management plans.
Two other parts of the United Nations Secretariat also provide direct support to
the treaty bodies: the Division of Conference Management at the United Nations
Office at Geneva (UNOG) houses the sections responsible for conference services,
editing and translation of documents as well as interpretation; and the United
Nations Information Service at UNOG provides information coverage of the treaty
bodies’ public meetings.
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