Professor Changrok Soh, the first South Korean member to be elected as the Vice-chair of the UN Human Rights Committee, has been part of the Committee since 2021. He participated in the 142nd Session, in which he was responsible for the State Review of Pakistan and Greece, and the LOIPR on Monaco and Poland. Below you can find an overview of the session published by the NGO Center for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR Centre).
The Committee reviewed six countries on the application of the ICCPR
The UN Human Rights Committee wrapped up its 142nd session on November 7, 2024, following four weeks of regular work and an additional week devoted to the working group on communications.
During this session, the Committee reviewed reports from Ecuador, France, Greece, Iceland, Türkiye, and Pakistan, adopting concluding observations and recommendations for each State party.
Follow-up to Views
The Committee finally managed to adopt one follow-up report on the implementation of the individual communications. This progress report assessed the (lack of) progress in cases against Colombia, Ecuador, Finland, Greece, New Zealand, Sweden, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine.
Decisions adopted on Individual communications
During this session, the Committee reviewed a total of 308 communications. Of these, 287 were examined on the merits, with violations of the ICCPR found in 286 cases (and one case with no violation). In addition, the Committee declared 10 cases inadmissible and discontinued 10 others. The implementation of the simplified procedure has led to an increase in the number of communications processed by the Committee.
Next on the agenda
The next 143rd session of the Human Rights Committee is scheduled to take place from 3 to 28 March 2025. The Committee will then review Albania, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Mongolia, Montenegro, Zimbabwe.
It will also adopt the List of Issues Prior to Reporting of Antigua and Barbuda (never reviewed before!), Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Mauritius, New Zealand and Samoa (never reviewed before!).