9 July 2024, 14:00-15:00
Event
Geneva Academy
This side-event to the 56th Human Rights Council session, organized by the Geneva Human Rights Platform, aims to present the findings of the Treaty Body Follow-Up Review Pilot Series, an initiative jointly run with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Pacific Community - SPC. The event will inform improvements in the follow-up review procedure as part of the new eight-year cycle for full reviews. The initiative, conceived as corollary to the broader treaty body strengthening process, involved pilot follow-up reviews in Sierra Leone (2021), Grenada (2022), and the Pacific Region (2023). Specifically, the objectives included assessing the effectiveness holding follow-up review sessions at the national and regional levels, fostering closer engagement with national and local stakeholders to ensure the practical implementation of human rights obligations, and identifying best practices and challenges in the follow-up process.
These pilots tested two models: national-level and regional-level follow-up reviews. National-level follow-up reviews provided in-depth engagement with local stakeholders, fostering cooperation among national actors and improved understanding of TB expectations. They also allowed TB members to grasp real situations, leading to more relevant and context-specific recommendations. Regional follow-up reviews enhanced broader cooperation and the sharing of best practices among multiple countries. A key aspect of these reviews was the emphasis on maximizing the use of UN regional hubs, which facilitate improved cooperation and accessibility for several countries in the region. This approach not only strengthened accountability but also ensured more context-specific and effectively disseminated TB recommendations.
Discussions will cover the pros and cons of both approaches, guiding the development of a more effective and context-sensitive follow-up review procedure, enhancing the overall efficiency and impact of the UN human rights treaty bodies.
Geneva Academy
The Geneva Human Rights Platform contributed to key discussions on AI, human rights, and sustainable digital governance at the World Economic Forum 2025.
Adobe
Our recent research brief series explores how the United Nations' human rights system can enhance its role in early warning and conflict prevention.
Adobe Stock
This seminar explores how national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up can better integrate the capacities, data, and experiences of local and regional governments in advancing human rights implementation and reporting.
Adobe Stock
The event, as part of the AI for Good Summit 2025 will explore how AI tools can support faster data analysis, help uncover patterns in large datasets, and expand the reach of human rights work.
UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré
This training course will explore the origin and evolution of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and its functioning in Geneva and will focus on the nature of implementation of the UPR recommendations at the national level.
Adobe
This training course, specifically designed for staff of city and regional governments, will explore the means and mechanisms through which local and regional governments can interact with and integrate the recommendations of international human rights bodies in their concrete work at the local level.
UN Photo/Violaine Martin
The IHL-EP works to strengthen the capacity of human rights mechanisms to incorporate IHL into their work in an efficacious and comprehensive manner. By so doing, it aims to address the normative and practical challenges that human rights bodies encounter when dealing with cases in which IHL applies.
Victoria Pickering
This project aims at providing support to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and of Association Clément Voulé by addressing emerging issues affecting civic space and eveloping tools and materials allowing various stakeholders to promote and defend civic space.
Geneva Academy
Geneva Academy