UN Treaty Watch

Vatican Counters UN Committee Comments on Child Rights

October 08, 2014

The Holy See's official response to the Concluding Observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, upon the Committee's recent review of the Vatican's report, asserts that the Committee has manifested "a lack of respect for the text" of the treaty upon which it is based.
UN Committee Questions Morocco on Privatization of Schools

September 10, 2014

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recently questioned delegates from Morocco on the effect of the country's privatization of schools, with the goal of promoting competition, on the right to education, which is described as a "public good" in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
UN Committee Criticizes U.S. for Wide-Ranging "Racial Bias"

September 03, 2014

While the legal process continues in Ferguson, Missouri, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has weighed in, bashing U.S. law enforcement, legal, and education practices.
NAACP Raises St. Louis Shooting Before UN Committee

August 20, 2014

The NAACP has announced that it has raised the recent police shooting of an African American teenager in St. Louis with the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, arguing that the incident was a violation of international human rights law.
Binchy: On Abortion, UN Committee Contradicts Human Rights Law

August 20, 2014

Professor William Binchy, former member of the Irish Human Rights Commission, writes that the UN Human Rights Committee's call for a referendum in Ireland on relaxing the country's abortion restrictions contradicts the purposes of human rights.
UN Committee: Irish Abortion Laws Violate Human Rights

July 30, 2014

Finding that Ireland's current, "highly restrictive" abortion laws violate the human rights of women, the UN Human Rights Committee has published a report calling on the country to hold a constitutional referendum to ensure women's access to abortion.
HRW: U.S. Violates Treaty Obligations on Racial Discrimination

July 30, 2014

Human Rights Watch ("HRW") argues that the U.S. is in violation of its treaty obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination for, among other things, the disproportionate impact of the country's agricultural laws and the refusal of some states to extend Medicaid.
UN Committee Member Rejects Claims on Rights of Unborn Children

July 23, 2014

In relation to its examination of Ireland's abortion laws, member of the UN Human Rights Committee Sir Nigel Rodley has described the arguments of a nongovernmental organization that there is no basis for abortion rights in international law as "breathtakingly arrogant."
UN Rights Committee Questions Ireland on Abortion Legislation

July 18, 2014

As part of the UN Human Rights Committee's periodic review of Ireland, members of the Committee questioned Ireland's Minister of Justice on Irish abortion restrictions and indicated that limitations on the right to abortion were prohibited under international human rights treaties.
UN Committee Comments on "Torture" Encourage Lawsuits

July 10, 2014

In their examination of the Holy See's report under the Convention against Torture, comments by members of the UN Committee against Torture referring to sex abuse by clergy members as potential torture could encourage the filing of new lawsuits against the Catholic Church.