Bolivia: An avalanche of legislation, but little information on its application

The Minister of Justice, the head of the Bolivian delegation, presented a long list of the legislation that has been adopted in recent years with the objective of improving the human rights situation in Bolivia. Despite these efforts, the Committee members regretted the lack of information on the implementation of all these laws in practice. [Read more and find out the recommendations of the Committee]

Djibouti: Hope fades as delegation avoids admitting to human rights abuses

The responses provided by the delegation of Djibouti were not of a high standard; they avoided responding to many of the questions posed by the Human Rights Committee members by repeatedly questioning the legitimacy of the Committee�s information and alleging that the it represented mere figments of the imagination of the opposition. [Read more and find out the recommendations of the Committee]

Mauritania: Too much national legislation contrary to the ICCPR

Several Committee members noted that some provisions of national law are contrary to the Covenant, notably the criminalisation of homosexuality and the prohibition on Muslims changing their religion, both of which �offences� carry the death penalty, in violation of Article 6 of the ICCPR. [Read more and find out the recommendations of the Committee]

Mozambique: UN experts dismayed by the lack of investigation and accountability for civil and political rights violations

Mozambique's initial report was seventeen years overdue when it was submitted in 2012. Despite this evidence of the State's reluctance to engage with the Committee, the delegation seemed to genuinely want to demonstrate its efforts in creating laws and implementing them to protect and enforce human rights in the country. However, the National NGO coalition, which attended the review, highlighted that the delegation replied to many of the Committee's concrete questions in an extremely abbreviated form. [Read more and find out the recommendations of the Committee]

Uruguay: The first review under the new List of Issues Prior to Report Procedure

The Committee recognised that there had been important progress in implementing the ICCPR in Uruguay. However, the Committee members expressed some concern about the lack of implementation of the Committee's views on Individual Communications, particularly the case of Peirano Basso v. Uruguay, the inequality between men and women in education and employment, the continuing police abuses which may constitute case of torture and street children. [Read more and find out the recommendations of the Committee]

USA fails to appear before the Human Rights Committee due to the shutdown

On 10 October 2013, only four days before the start of the Human Rights Committee's 109th session, the United States of America requested that the review of its fourth periodic report be postponed as the State delegation was unable to attend due to the Government shutdown. [Read more]

States to be reviewed:
• Chad
• Kyrgyzstan
• Latvia
• Nepal
• Sierra Leone
• United States of America
Deadline for Submissions 14 February 2014

Lists of Issues will be prepared on:
• France
• Haiti
• Malta
• Montenegro
• Russian Federation
• Sri Lanka
Lists of Issues Prior to Reporting will be prepared on:
• Ecuador
• New Zealand
• Sweden
Deadline for Submissions 20 December 2013