International Organizations

On April 9, 2014, Member States of the United Nations (UN) concluded a two-year State-led process to reform its “human rights treaty bodies”: ten expert committees tasked with monitoring States’ implementation of the obligations set forth in the UN’s core human rights treaties and their protocols.[1] The process began as an attempt by States with objections to crucial aspects of the work of the treaty bodies to overtake an ongoing reform effort by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

We live in a time where war crimes and crimes against humanity still occur on a regular basis. Along with genocide, these are the crimes the world has too often vowed to never again accept. In this context, an important recent initiative to strengthen the international legal framework needed for states to prosecute the perpetrators of such crimes in their national courts has gone relatively unnoticed.