Anyone who has had their human rights violated may be able to file a complaint to an international body, against the state or organisation responsible. There are two main routes available for complaints:
- Complaints to human rights treaty bodies
- Complaints to non-treaty bodies:
- The UN Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure
- Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
- Partner organisations
Human Rights Treaties
There are eight human rights treaties in force with associated treaty bodies, commonly called committees. The committees monitor the implementation of the treaty by states parties and can receive complaints concerning violations of the treaty.
The most common type of complaint is from an individual about a state, but there is also a process through which a state can lodge a complaint against another state.
Individual communications
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) states that eight of the human rights treaty bodies may under “certain conditions, receive and consider individual complaints or communications from individuals”.
Complaints against a state can be lodged via one of the treaty bodies provided the state in question is a party to the treaty and accepts the treaty committee’s “competence to examine individual complaints”.
State to State complaints
Also called interstate complaints, multiple committees have varying procedures in place for considering or resolving disputes between states.
UN Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure
Unlike complaints under specific human rights treaties, the UN Human Rights Council accepts complaints about violations of any human rights against any state. This approach exists to address “consistent patterns of gross and reliably attested violations of all human rights and fundamental freedoms” across the globe.
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council
The Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council involves the reporting of “thematic or country-specific” perspectives from impartial and independent individual human rights experts (known as a “Special Rapporteur” or “Independent Expert”) or working groups made of five members – “one from each of the five United Nations regional groupings”. They are not UN staff members, and as stated by the OHCHR, “the Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and members of the Working Group are appointed by the Human Rights Council and serve in their personal capacities”.
Other options
Complaints can also be lodged with partner organisations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) or the International Labour Organisation.
Human Rights Treaty Bodies criteria and procedure
The OHCHR website provides a comprehensive list of the requirements would-be complainants need to consider prior to submitting an application, which includes exhausting all domestic legal options, proof of being directly impacted by a violation, ensuring the complaint is not frivolous, and more.
Privacy and security
Though anonymous complaints are not allowed, committees do take into consideration complaints of a sensitive or personal nature and expects that some complainants may not wish to disclose their identities.
If individuals do not wish to be named in their applications, they should indicate this as quickly as possible. Committees may also choose to withhold the name(s) of applicants.
Inadmissibility
Complainants are encouraged to submit their complaints as soon as possible following the exhaustion of all possible domestic legal options. Submissions that wait too long may become inadmissible by some committees.
How the committee processes complaints
Assuming a submission meets all the necessary criteria, the complaint is officially registered and sent to the relevant state involved in the complaint. That state is given six months to review and respond to the complaint. During this process, complainants are allowed to comment upon state replies.
Admissibility and Merits
The case then goes through the admissibility and merits stage of the process, where it must satisfy certain formal requirements (admissibility) and be substantial enough to prove a violation occurred (merits). Usually, committees consider both in tandem.
Special circumstances during processing
Prior to consideration, some committees may issue a request for “interim measures” to the relevant state to pause or freeze actions with life-altering outcomes that cannot be undone (e.g. a death sentence). The UN recommends complainants make a request for interim measures as soon as possible if they are needed.
Decision-making process and outcomes
Following the deliberation process, a committee’s decision will have one of two possible outcomes:
- If the committee decides that no violation of a treaty has occurred, the case will be closed.
- If a committee finds that a violation has occurred, it invites the state involved to provide information on the steps it is taking to address the problem and a timeline for resolving them.
As part of this violation resolution process, the committee involved will issue recommendations (“follow-up procedures”). State parties are then given 180 days to respond to the recommendations made (i.e. show what actions they are taking to implement the suggested recommendations). The state’s responses are also provided to complaints for comments.
Should a state fail to meet the deadline, the committee will engage in a dialogue with the state and the matter will remain in an open and active state until an acceptable outcome has been reached.
UN Human Rights Council criteria and procedure
For complainants to the UN Human Rights Council, their strict set of criteria that needs to be met for any complaint to be accepted:
- Domestic remedies must have been exhausted, unless those options are provably ineffective or take unreasonable lengths of time to action (“unreasonably prolonged”)
- It must be in writing in one of the six official UN languages.
- It must contain a description of relevant facts, including the names of alleged victims, dates, location of events, and any other evidence available, and with as much detail as possible.
- It must not be politically motivated or based on media reports.
- It must not include or involve the use of abusive of insulting language.
- The matter must not already be under examination by a special procedure, treaty body, or other UN group.
Complaints can be lodged either via an online portal or by mail. Complainants are advised to note that the UN will only reply with a confirmation of receipt.
Complaints Process
Complaints made through the UN Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure go through a three-step consideration process – an initial screening by the Secretariat and Chairperson of the Working Group on Communications, considerations by both the Working Group on Communications and Working Group on Situations, and – if successful – a final consideration by the Human Rights Council.
Human Rights Council Outcomes
Consideration of a matter by the Human Rights Council is the final stage of the process and can have several different outcomes.
- If further action is not needed, the matter may be dismissed.
- Keep the matter in an open review state pending further information from the accused state.
- Maintain an ‘under review’ status for the case while an independent expert nation monitors the matter and reports outcomes to the council.
- Discontinue any further confidential reviews and make the matter public.
- Recommend that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) provide the accused state with capacity building.
