Any State party may send a communication to the Committee alleging that another State party is not fulfilling its obligations under the Covenant. This reflects the dual concept of a human rights treaty as not only an agreement between a State party and persons under its jurisdiction, but also a multilateral treaty in the traditional sense, when all States parties to the treaty are interested in observing the obligations assumed by other States parties. In this regard, it can be reasonably argued that human rights violations in one State party directly affect all other States parties. However, such a complaint procedure, provided for in article 41 of the Covenant, can only be applied to two States parties that have declared that they recognize the competence of the Committee to receive and consider such inter-State complaints. At the time of preparation of this publication, 48 States have made such a statement. However, to date, the Committee has not received any interstate complaints. Nevertheless, it would be advisable to describe in more detail the procedure for implementing this procedure.
The first step of the complaining State is to bring it to the attention of the State that is allegedly not fulfilling its obligations. Within three months, the latter must submit its response in the form of a written explanation. If the matter is not resolved to the satisfaction of both parties within six months, each of them may refer the matter to the Committee, which considers it only after it has verified within a reasonable period of time that all available domestic means have been tried and exhausted.
The Committee may then take the matter up for consideration and offer its good offices in order to resolve it amicably. If the issue is not resolved, the Committee may appoint a Conciliation Commission consisting of five persons with the consent of the States Parties directly concerned, without including nationals of these States in its composition, and instruct it to complete consideration of the issue within 12 months and submit a report to the Chairman of the Committee and, through the Chairman, to the parties involved in the dispute.
How can I access information about the work of the UN Human Rights Committee?
Concluding observations, general comments, final decisions on individual complaints and other documents prepared by or for the Committee are posted and can be accessed online in the treaty body database of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (http:://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf ). To get current information on the latest developments, you can become a subscriber to the free public electronic service LISTSERV, which distributes data on the results of each session of the Human Rights Committee by e-mail at the end of each session or immediately after. You can add e-mail addresses to this documentation distribution system by visiting the web page below and adding the address to an existing heading for this purpose:
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbmailin.nsf/email?Openform. The LISTSERV service contains a link to the latest summary table with information on the participating States that have submitted reports and schedules for their consideration by the Committee.
In order to keep abreast of developments at the session, press releases containing summaries of the day's events can be viewed daily on the web page of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (http://www.ohchr.org ).
The final press release issued at the end of the session provides an overview of the most important decisions on individual complaints that were taken during the relevant session.
Similar information can also be found in the Committee's annual report to the General Assembly, which is available in many libraries and information centres.
The most important decisions on individual complaints are also provided in the regularly published "Compilation of Decisions of the Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol". These collections are also available in many libraries and information centers.