NGOs

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the role played by NGOs before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Human Rights Committee. Even if NGO participation was not originally foreseen in the Covenants, clear proceedings have subsequently been established to ensure their involvement in the Committees’ work. This chapter’s main focus is on the reporting procedure: it assesses how NGOs can submit written and oral information to strengthen this process. It also briefly addresses the NGO role in other areas of the Committees’ work, in particular the drafting of General Comments and the individual communications mechanisms. However, NGO participation is not limited to the work carried out in Geneva, and the chapter highlights recent NGO initiatives to ensure proper national implementation of the Committees’ recommendations. Such engagement is also possible in the context of the follow-up procedures, albeit to different extents depending on the practices of the respective Committee.