HUMAN RIGHTS TREATY CORRESPONDING TREATY BODY International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Human Rights Committee (HRC) International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Committee against Torture (CAT) Convention on the Rights of the Child Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (MWC) 61. In the course of their work, these committees provide valuable guidance for proper administration of justice for all States parties seeking to implement the rights set out in the instruments in question. Treaty provisions are often general in character, but must be implemented by specific, detailed provisions in domestic law. For example, the rights to life, liberty and security of the person cannot be implemented by mere declaratory legal provisions. Rather, detailed criminal, civil and administrative laws and procedures must exist to provide remedies for victims and sanctions for perpetrators, together with crucial procedural guarantees. 62. The work of the treaty bodies serves to inform domestic legislative processes and agencies in their efforts to interpret and implement the rights guaranteed by the international instruments. One important function of the committees is dealing with periodic reports from all States parties to the treaties. Following the committees' guidelines, States parties submit reports on the steps they have taken to give effect to the rights spelled out in the respective treaties. The committees issue concluding observations to the States parties, based on the examination of these reports, and include those observations in their annual reports. On a number of occasions, committees have concluded that violations of the treaties had taken place, and urged States parties to desist from any further infringements of the rights in question. Within the ambit of concluding observations, the committees can make specific recommendations to the States parties to prevent further violations. Although these observations are not legally binding, States parties are expected to undertake the necessary measures to implement them in good faith. Furthermore, both CAT and HRC have recently created special rapporteurs on follow-up of concluding observations to strengthen the committees' activities in this field. 63. Perhaps the most important function of the committees in developing the system of periodic reports from States parties is the adoption of general comments or general recommendations. Regarding general comments, CESCR, HRC, CRC and CAT have adopted this practice with a view to assisting States parties in fulfilling their reporting obligations and to provide greater interpretative clarity as to the intent, mean- 19