3. Opportunities for You to Engage

3.4 Periodic reviews – Why are they useful?

You can engage with Treaty Bodies in all areas of their work – periodic reviews, individual communications, general comments, inquiries, early warnings and urgent actions, and by following up on Treaty Body actions.

This and the next two sections focus on:

Periodic reviews

Periodic or country reviews allow for Treaty Bodies to monitor a State’s implementation of its obligations under the treaties.

This reporting process may be the most useful (and most commonly used) tool of the Treaty Bodies from the perspective of human rights defenders.

Below you will find questions to help you consider why periodic reviews might be useful to your advocacy, followed by some examples of how other human rights defenders have engaged and used this tool.

For more information on what they are, see ISHR Academy: Periodic reviews – What can Treaty Bodies do?

Reflection Questions

Q1- How could periodic reviews be useful/advantageous to you?

The periodic review offers the opportunity to:
- Obtain specific recommendations grounded in a binding treaty that you can use in advocacy directed to your government (Treaty Bodies are experts/quasi-judicial mechanisms)
- Provide comprehensive and evidenced-based information on the situation of human rights at national / local level, thus ensuring Treaty Bodies have information at hand to make relevant concluding observations and recommendations to your country
- Give voice to victims
- Ensure greater scrutiny of your State’s efforts and promote accountability
- Stimulate public debate
- Open dialogue with your State and other actors
- Build relationships with Treaty Bodies for future action
- In restrictive national environments, engage with State representatives, which would not otherwise be possible in-country

Q2- Could they be harmful/disadvantageous?

Submitting information or contributing to a periodic review by Treaty Bodies could lead to reprisals by your government. Sadly, national authorities may target and retaliate against organisations and individuals who cooperate with the Treaty Bodies. There are a range of preventive and remedial measures that you can take including:
- Request that your submission be kept confidential and not published on the OHCHR website
- Request confidential and private discussions with the relevant Treaty Body members. Such requests can be made directly to the Treaty Body Secretariat at the OHCHR, and/or with support from specialised NGOs for Treaty Bodies which receive support from their members.
- Report immediately any instances of threats or intimidation, including unwanted pictures or films by State delegations during reviews, to the Treaty Body focal point on reprisals through the OHCHR Secretariat.
- For more information on reprisals, including contact information to report an act of intimidation or reprisal against anyone who has cooperated with the UN Treaty Bodies, see the dedicated webpage of the Treaty Bodies on reprisals. See also the information on the San Jose Guidelines in ISHR Academy: Managing Expectations.
- See also ISHR Academy: Security

Q3- Consider how periodic reviews support/complement your existing advocacy strategies

Remember:

Obtaining focused recommendations directed to your State from a UN Treaty Body should be seen as part of a wider advocacy strategy, and part of your planned follow-up. You may wish to consider how the Treaty Body recommendations serve your advocacy objectives and how they support the process of implementation and compliance at the national level.
You can use other UN human rights mechanisms, for example the Universal Periodic Review, to push your State to comply with recommendations made by a Treaty Body.
You can use recommendations from Treaty Body inquiry reports and other outputs to support your submissions in the periodic review of your State

Examples of using periodic reviews

Defender Story

Thailand - Prohibiting corporal punishment against children

On 25 March 2025, an amendment to Section 1567(2) of Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code entered into force, fully prohibiting corporal punishment of children in all settings. According to the 2022 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted by Thailand’s National Statistical Office in collaboration with UNICEF, 54 per cent of children under the age of 14 had experienced some form of violent discipline, i.e., physical and psychological punishment, by household members—a decline from 75 per cent in 2015. The amendment follows recommendations issued by the Committee against Torture during its 81st session in November 2024. The Committee called on the State Party to prohibit corporal punishment in all settings, including the home and alternative care settings. The Committee also called for public awareness to be raised of the prohibition of corporal punishment against children and its consequences. This builds on the previous recommendations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child during its 59th session in 2012 and show the concrete impact of Concluding Observations.

Defender Story

Mauritania – Continuing the struggle against modern slavery with support from a UN Committee

When Mauritania was reviewed by the Human Rights Committee (HR Ctte) in 2013, NGOs raised a series of concerns and suggested recommendations in relation to the ongoing prevalence of modern forms of slavery. Their inputs to the List of Issues (LOI) and to the periodic review contributed to the adoption of an urgent recommendation by the HR Ctte to adopt and implement a national road map on the eradication of modern slavery. With support from the UN Human Rights office, the Mauritanian authorities subsequently adopted the road map. The HR Ctte acknowledged the significant progress which had been made in complying with the recommendation by adopting a grade “B1” which recognised that the government had taken “substantive action” to comply with the recommendation.

In 2019, Mauritania was reviewed by the HR Ctte again. The Committee acknowledged the State’s adoption of Act No. 2015-031 which recognises slavery as a crime against humanity, aligning its definition to international standards, as well as establishing the national agency Tadamoun, dedicated to eradicating the legacy of slavery.