Financial cutbacks threaten the United Nations human rights mechanisms

Published: Wednesday, July 17, 2019

In May, NWCI was deeply concerned to learn of a funding crisis in the UN which threated to postpone the CEDAW session scheduled for the final quarter of 2019, as well as the sessions of a number of other treaties. This development was in large part due to UN member states not paying their fees. As of 1 July 2019, 106 of 193 member states had fully paid their dues in full.  Ireland has discharged her financial obligations in full.  While we appreciate that this inevitably results in financial constraints, and member states should as such be held accountable, we are also deeply concerned by the internal deprioritisation of the treaty body system, coming as it does at a critical point when right-wing populism is chipping away at human rights around the world.

NWCI, together with 296 other organisations and 366 individuals from around the world, sent an open letter to Permanent Representatives to the United Nations in Geneva and New York expressing our deep concern over the development.  We also raised this matter directly with our own Government and representatives at the UN. 

It was with some relief that we learned in late June that these sessions would go ahead as originally scheduled. However, the financial crisis remains, and a permanent solution has yet to be devised. The upcoming 2020 review of the treaty body system may afford the space to find a more durable solution to providing the necessary resources for the treaty body system. At a time when civil society spaces are shrinking in many national contexts, it is all the more crucial that impunity for human rights violations can be challenged at the UN level. For our part, NWCI will continue to monitor and engage in this crucial issue.