Dr. Muhannad Alazzeh
Dr. Muhannad Alazzeh
To be able legally and realistically to protect the rights of any group in this world, you need first to know and analyse their status quo in comparison with the relevant human rights treaty, this knowledge is not the purpose but it’s the tool to identify the gaps and then to shed light on the weaknesses to enhance them and on the strengths to promote them, so the CRPD through its mandate as a monitoring body is responsible to inquire the implementation situation of the convention through the periodical reports which must be submitted by the States parties and through the shadow/alternative reports which are submitted by the civil society, and then to identify the gaps at the policy, legislative and practical levels in the implementation, then to provide direct recommendations to improve the situation, and this process must be exclusively based and derived from the common binding reference, which is the CRPD with no space to compromise any of the human rights or basic freedoms in favour of political or claimed cultural considerations. Most of the violation against the human rights are being committed under social traditions and cultural justifications.
The main challenge I perceive in the UN treaty body system is the efficacy in making real and tangible changes at the national levels, this requires robust monitoring tools to make sure that the States parties are taking the concluding observations/results issued by the respective committees seriously at the policy and practices levels, meanwhile, I think promoting the coordination between the different treaties bodies systems I.E, CEDAW, CRPD, CRC… committees as well as the special rapporteurs; would enhance the quality and the impact of the CRPD and the similar committees. On the other hand, having productive dialog with the State parties to encourage them to ratify the optional protocol and empowering the civil society to play dominant role in the monitoring process at the national level; can make remarkable change in this regard.
Dr. Muhannad Alazzeh 