A guide for activists on using international human rights treaties 

At the beginning of August, China’s record on women’s rights will be reviewed at the United Nations in New York when a committee of experts considers a report on implementation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women in the PRC.¹  Although China has now ratified five of the seven instruments labelled “core international human rights treaties” by the United Nations and Beijing has been submitting reports under these treaties for more than 20 years now, to date activists inside China have had little opportunity to make use of these treaties.  

One exception is that treaty standards have been a major focus of advocacy by mainland legal scholars on reform of criminal law and procedures. This was the case in the mid-1990s when revisions were under discussion for both the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law. More recently, discussion of the changes China would need to make to its laws to bring it into compliance with the ICCPR have been generating debate in the legal community, with the NPC Legal Affairs Commission holding hearings on the subject. But the obligations related to the treaties by which China is legally bound have, ironically, received much less attention. 

Prior to ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in 2001, China had ratified four treaties with reporting procedures: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1980; the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 1981; the Convention Against Torture (CAT) in 1988 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1992. Thus China is now a party to most of the major human rights treaties that have reporting procedures involving governments periodically submitting reports on their adherence to the treaty in question to the United Nations, with the notable exception being the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the PRC signed in 1998, but has yet to ratify.² 

While it is clear that the Chinese government essentially views its international obligations under these treaties as a matter of foreign affairs, and seeks to insulate the domestic arena from the reach of international human rights law, there is plenty of scope for challenges to this vision. The 2004 amendment to the Constitution, which made respect for and protection of human rights a constitutional principle, can be seen as legitimizing human rights advocacy, providing legal support for those who claim their rights and those who advocate on their behalf.  

This guide for activists, issued by CRD, aims to provide some information about the treaties and the reporting process that may be useful for those interested in bringing the rights contained in these instruments to life. It looks at ways to use the treaties that go beyond the international dimension, suggesting how international law and experience with using it in other countries may be useful in domestic struggles to ensure that rights are respected, protected and fulfilled. 

Outline of treaty body process 

The principal international mechanism for monitoring of states’ compliance with human rights treaties, mandated by the treaties, is the so-called “treaty bodies,” which are committees of experts that review compliance through the examination of reports submitted by those states on their progress on implementing the treaty in question. These treaty bodies are mostly established by the treaties themselves, with the exception of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which was set up by the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1986, 20 years after the treaty was adopted by the UN General Assembly. The experts who sit on the committees are nominated by countries on the basis of geographical diversity, and are supposed to be independent and specialist in a related field, but in practice many countries propose diplomats to fill such posts. The size of the committees varies, CAT with 10, CERD with 16, CRC and CESCR with 18 and CEDAW with 23 members. The committees meet in Geneva or New York, with varying meeting times and frequency.  

Treaty bodies receive state party reports and cooperate with the state in reviewing this information, concluding by assessing the state’s progress and making recommendations for further action in implementing the treaty in question. Each has its own schedule for s

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