In November 2019, during its 127th session, the Human Rights Committee finalised its first reading of draft General Comment 37 on article 21 of the Covenant. The Committee now invites all interested stakeholders to comment on the Committee’s new draft (for the link to the draft, see below).

To start the process of writing General Comment 37, the Committee held a half-day discussion on 20 March 2019 during its 125th session held in Geneva from 4 to 29 March 2019. The Committee invited national human rights institutions, civil society, academia and international organizations to provide relevant information to be taken into consideration by the Committee during the preparation of the first draft. During its 126th session, the Committee commenced its first reading of the draft. The Committee completed its first review at the 127th session.

All stakeholders, including Member States, UN and regional human rights mechanisms, UN organisations or specialised agencies, national human rights institutions, civil society, and academia are invited to provide their comments on the new draft in writing to ccpr@ohchr.org.

Submissions should:

be submitted in one of the working languages of the Committee- in English, French or Spanish; and
be submitted in WORD format (no hard copies).

Deadline:
Comments must be submitted by 14 February 2020. To facilitate the work of the Committee, this deadline will be strictly applied. No submissions received after this deadline will be posted on the webpage. The deadline has been extended to 28 February 2020.

The revised draft General Comment No. 37 is available in:

English
French
Spanish

Oral inputs:

In addition to written contributions, the Committee will be hearing oral inputs from Member States and other stakeholders, including national human rights institutions, civil society, academia and international organizations. The meeting with Member States will take place on 6 March 2020, from 15:00 to 18:00 hrs, Conference Room XIX, Palais des Nations. The meeting with other stakeholders will take place on 9 March 2020 from 15:00 to 18:00 hrs, Ground Floor Meeting Room, Palais Wilson.

References:

UN Human Rights Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement (2019) [available in English]

Laws on the Right of Peaceful Assembly Worldwide, an online resource collated by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria (2019)[available in English]

Law on Police Use of Force Worldwide, an online resource collated by the Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria (2018) [available in English]

Library of UN and Regional Materials on Freedom of Assembly, an online resource collated by ICNL & ECNL (2019) [available in English]

Protest and Human Rights: Standards on the rights involved in social protest and the obligations to guide the response of the State, a report by the IACHR Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression (2019) [available in English and Spanish]

African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Guidelines on Freedom of Association and Assembly in Africa (2017) [available in English and French]

African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Guidelines for the Policing of Assemblies by Law Enforcement Officials in Africa (2017) [available in English/French/Portuguese/Arabic (one document)]

Comments:

States