This manual is designed to assist in the preparation of reports on compliance with (and violations of) rights to reproductive and sexual health by

• governmental departments and agencies and
• non-govermental organizations (NGOs),

and to assist in the development of

• advocacy manuals,
• training programmes, and
• research.

The manual is divided into the following six sections:

1. The Convention Against Torture and other Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment (the Torture Convention)

2. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (the Women's Convention),

3. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (the Children's Convention),

4. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),

5. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and,

6. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (the Race Convention).

Within each section, there are three parts. The first part contains the text of the relevant convention or covenant ("treaty"). The second part contains the General Recommendations or General Comments of the treaty monitoring body. The third part of each section contains relevant Concluding Observations that have been issued by the treaty monitoring body.

Table 1 at page 7 identifies the relevant articles of the treaties listed above that have been or could be applied to protect and promote reproductive and sexual health rights. Table 1 contains the relevant paragraphs of the Programme of Action¹, adopted at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, and the subsequent five year review². Table 1 also identifies the relevant paragraphs of the Platform for Action³, adopted at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, and the subsequent five year review⁴.

Reporting to Treaty Bodies and Subsequent Dialogue

For each of the six treaties mentioned above, there is a corresponding committee that monitors the implementation of the rights contained in that treaty. The committees are:

• the Committee Against Torture (CAT)
• the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
• the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC),
• the Human Rights Committee (HRC),
• the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), and
• the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).

Members of these committees are elected in their personal capacity as experts, not as representatives of their governments. They are elected by states that have ratified or acceded to the treaty, known as States Parties. Table 2 at page 11 sets out the data and practice of the respective committees.

States Parties to the treaties are obligated to report periodically to the Committees on what they have done to bring their laws, policies, and practices into compliance with the treaty requirements. For example, Article 18 of the Women's Convention requires States Parties to:

"submit reports within one year after the entry into force for the State concerned; [and] thereafter at least every four years and further whenever the Committee so requests."

Committees then respond to the reports of States Parties with Concluding Observations.

Committees develop General Comments or General Recommendations on specific articles to guide State Parties in their reporting. For example, Article 21 of the Women's Convention states:

"(1) The Committee shall, through the Economic and Social Council, report annually to the General Assembly of the United Nations on its activities and may make suggestions and general recommendations based on the examination of reports and information received from the States Parties. Such suggestions and General Recommendations shall be included in the report of the Committee together with Comments, if any, from States Parties.

(2) The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall transmit the reports of the Committee to the Commission on the Status of Women for its information."

The sequence of steps in the reporting process under the Women's Convention is outlined below⁵. The process for other treaty bodies is similar⁶.

1. Submission of reports

Individual States Parties first submit a written report to the Committee. State representatives are then given the opportunity to introduce the report to the Committee orally. The introduction tends to provide a very general overview of the content of the report.

In addition to the reports of States Parties, "shadow" or alternative reports from NGOs that examine the degree to which states have complied with their treaty obligations may also be submitted to treaty bodies. Shadow reports are submitted the same way that governmental reports are submitted and usually follow the same format. These reports can be useful to treaty bodies in evaluating the implementation of rights in a particular country.

2. General Observations

After the introduction, the Committee makes General Observations regarding the report's form and content.

3. Consideration of Individual Articles

The Committee members may then ask questions relating to specific articles of the treaty. The members focus on the actual position of women in society in an effort to understand the extent of different forms of discrimination. The Committee may accordingly request specific statistical information on the position of women in society, not only from the government, but also from NGOs and independent agencies.

The State Party representative presenting its report may decide to answer some of these questions immediately, and usually will provide other answers a day or two later. At this point, the Committee may ask additional questions, or may request that further information be sent to the Secretariat before the next report is due.

4. Concluding Observations

The Committee will then prepare Concluding Observations on the report of the individual State Party. CEDAW has decided that these Observations should address the most important points, by engaging in a constructive dialogue and emphasizing both the positive aspects of a State's report and matters on which the Committee has expressed concern. These observations should clearly indicate what the Committee wishes the State Party to report on in its next report.

Excerpts from the Concluding Observations of treaty bodies relating to reproductive and sexual health are included in this compilation.

General Comments or General Recommendations of treaty bodies that relate to reproductive and sexual health are also included. These materials were obtained from the "documents" section of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights website at: http://www.unhchr.ch/.

In addition to the reporting procedures of the respective treaties, the Women's Convention, ICCPR and the Race Convention have communication procedures either through the treaties themselves or through optional protocols to the treaties (see Table 2 at page 11)⁷.

Information on Reports

Further information regarding specific States Parties' reports, when they have reported, and dates for future reports may be found at the following websites or by contacting the following organizations:

Website: http://www.unhchr.ch/
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR)
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Tel: 41-22-917-9000, Fax: 41-22-917-9016

or

Website: http://www.commat.org
Commonwealth Medical Association Trust (ComMAT)
ComMAT, c/o BMA House, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9JP, UK
Tel: 44-20-7272-8492, Fax: 44-20-7272-1663
Email: office@commat.org

Details on countries' ratification status with respect to human rights treaties can also be found on the UNHCHR website.

In addition, the Women's Convention homepage at:

Website: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/
Women's Rights Unit, Division for the Advancement of Women
United Nations,
2 UN Plaza, DC2-12th Floor
New York, NY 10017 USA
Tel: 212-963-3162 Fax: 212-963-3463, Email: daw@un.org

provides official documents of CEDAW's past sessions, and an updated list of countries' ratification status.

The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) collaborates with non-governmental organizations in developing alternative reports, and publishes a variety of books and reports relating to reproductive health and rights. For more information about CRLP and its work, please see:

Website: http://www.crlp.org
CRLP, 120 Wall Street, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10005, USA
Tel: 212-514-5534/5, Fax: 212-514-5538, Email: info@crlp.org.

Should you wish to develop alternative or shadow reports that can assist treaty bodies in formulating their Concluding Observations, and require guidance, examples of such reports may be requested from CRLP at the address above.

Other alternative reports include those of the International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW) which may be found at:

Website: http://www.igc.apc.org/iwraw/index.html
IWRAW, Humbert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota,
301-19th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
Tel: 612- 625-5093, Fax: 612-624-0068, Email: iwraw@hhh.umn.edu

The Women's Human Rights Resources Website

In order to facilitate access, the materials contained in this compilation are placed at:

Website: http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/Diana/
Bora Laskin Law Library
Faculty of Law
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada M5S 2C5
Email: whrr.law@utoronto.ca

The Women's Human Rights Resources is an internet website project of the University of Toronto's Bora Laskin Law Library. This site contains information pertinent to the rights of all people, and in particular women's human rights and reproductive and sexual health rights. The purpose of the site is to facilitate an understanding of women's international human rights.

In its organization, the site is subdivided into topical categories. Each category contains an annotated bibliography of books and articles, and documents such as treaties and NGO reports on the international women's human rights law applicable to the topic. A search option allows a search for a particular author, title, keyword, or any combination thereof. In addition, the site contains an annotated listing of internet links to NGOs and other human rights organizations that contain current, substantive information on women's reproductive and sexual rights issues around the world.

Comments Welcome

Every effort has been made to be comprehensive to the end of December 2004. However, given the vast amount of material available, there are no doubt omissions.

These materials have been compiled as part of the International Programme on Reproductive and Sexual Health Law of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, in collaboration with Action Canada for Population and Development. However, any errors or omissions are our own. Comments and suggestions on these materials are welcome. They may be sent to the Bora Laskin Law Library at: whrr.law@utoronto.ca, or to Action Canada for Population and Development at: info@acpd.ca.

We are grateful to the Ford Foundation, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law, and the Bora Laskin Law Library for their support of and assistance with this project.

¹United Nations, Report on the International Conference on Population and Development, United Nations, New York, NY, A/Conf.171/13 (1994).
²United Nations, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the Twenty-first Special Session of the General Assembly, Key actions for the further implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, A/S-21/Add.1 (1999).
³United Nations, Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, United Nations, New York, NY, A/Conf.177/20 (1995).
⁴United Nations, Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the Twenty-third Special Session of the General Assembly, Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, A/S-23/10/Rev.1 (2000).
⁵As found in the UN Centre for Human Rights, The Human Rights Fact Sheet Series, No. 22, Discrimination Against Women: The Convention and the Committee, (Geneva: UN Centre for Human Rights, 1994). This Fact Sheet Series is also available at the United Nations High Commissioner Website at http://www.unhchr.ch
⁶See the Human Rights Fact Sheet Series cited in the Select Bibliography at page 14.
⁷For more information on these mechanisms and how to file individual complaints, see: Sian Lewis-Anthony, "Treaty-Based Procedures for Making Human Rights Complaints within the UN System" in Hurst Hannum (ed.), Guide to International Human Rights Practice (3rd ed) (New York: Transnational Publishers, 1999). The Optional Protocol to the Women's Convention was adopted in 1999 and is reproduced at page 63, and the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR is reproduced at page 474.