Membership

The Committee is composed of 10 independent experts who are persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights, who serve in their personal capacity and are independent and impartial.

The members of the CED are elected by States parties “according to equitable geographical distribution” and taking into account “the usefulness of the participation in the work of the CED, having relevant legal experience and of balanced gender representation” (art. 26, para. 1, ICPPED).

Regular scheduled elections are held to replace members of the Committee when their terms expire.

Current members

Officers

The members elect the Committee’s officers for two-year terms (renewable). These officers are:

• The Committee’s Chairperson, with overall responsibility for the conduct of the Committee’s work;
• Three Vice-Chairpersons;
• The Rapporteur, who prepares the Committee’s annual report to the General Assembly.

In addition, the Committee appoints rapporteurs to perform specific functions. These are:

• The Working Group on Urgent Actions, that includes 5 to 6 members of the Committee in charge of analyzing the Urgent Action requests submitted under article 30 of the Convention, and their registration and follow-up;
• The Special Rapporteur on New Communications, whose functions include the registration of new complaints under article 31 of the Convention and such preliminary issues as requests for interim measures of protection that may be necessary to prevent irreparable harm in a case presented to the Committee;
• The Special Rapporteur on Follow-up to Views, who monitors the implementation of the Committee’s decisions on the merits of individual cases;
• The Special Rapporteur on Follow-up to Concluding Observations, who is tasked with the analysis of States follow-up reports before their consideration by the Plenary of the Committee;
• The Rapporteur on Reprisals, who is in charge of analyzing and addressing all allegations of reprisals submitted to the Committee.