Sharing Good Practice Internationally: Engaging with UN Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures Mechanisms
January 2025 GLC Monthly Learning Call Brief
One of the primary aims here at the GLC is to support and equip our diverse global membership in their work in the anti-trafficking sector through learning, connection and collaboration. Most of the time the topics of our learning calls bring new insights and knowledge to expand our understanding of the issue or to directly assist members in their work or the movement more broadly, at other times they also reveal the fruits of collaborative working. But it’s not often we have a learning call topic which opens up completely new avenues for highlighting grassroots knowledge at high-level structures and points to avenues where collaboration can be harnessed to collectively raise at these high levels the nuanced understanding of intersections, interventions and realities of diverse communities and experiences from grassroots levels.
Our January Monthly Learning Call on Engaging with UN Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures Mechanisms did just this. The call was attended by a small group of members who all expressed intention of wanting to engage with the high level international structure that is the UN. The call was led by GLC Equity Partner Gillian Kane from Ulster University in Northern Ireland and her colleague Devota Nuwe the Executive Director of International Refugee Rights Initiative in Uganda, who aimed to introduce the GLC to the ways in which grassroots organisations can bring their knowledge to the UN, but importantly to show us why this might be a valuable thing to do.
Knowledge shared on the call
Gillian presented a brief and concise introduction to what Treaty Bodies and Special Procedures are:
Treaty Bodies are the monitoring bodies of the various human rights treaties such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Special Procedures are a group of independent human rights experts, known as Special Rapporteurs, mandated by the Human Rights Council to report and advise on human rights from specific thematic or country perspectives.
The presentation outlined what both the Treaty Body and Special Procedure mechanisms do and importantly how organisations can contribute to their monitoring and reporting mandates.
Devota provided insight from a 2023 submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking for Women and Children made in collaboration by the Refugee Law Project (School of Law at Makere University, Uganda) and the Irish Centre for Human Rights (University of Galway). Their collaboration looked specifically at refugees in Uganda to understand the risk factors within this population and gain understanding into needed or helpful mechanisms for intervention. The findings highlighted gaps in knowledge and practice of the intersection between refugees and trafficking, and along with their recommendations were submitted to the Special Rapporteur in response to a call for input. These recommendations were then included in the final report (See section V) brought to the UN General Assembly Human Rights Council in July 2023.
Take aways from the call discussion
The first take-away from the call was that making a submission to either of these structures is not as formal, rigorous or time consuming a process as one might think. Secondly, that it doesn’t require massive data sets and extensive research to compile a submission, and thirdly that these UN Treaty Bodies and offices of Special Rapporteurs need and want the knowledge of grassroots organisations.
Some of the questions that we wrestled with in the discussions on the call, including ‘why do it?’, led us into acknowledging some cynicism towards these structures and processes, even acknowledging negative and unhelpful experiences. But we also made space for the tension of this question as some also acknowledged that while cynicism sometimes seems like a constant companion in the seemingly impossible work to confront human trafficking, we do the work anyway. And we do it now on the foundations of the knowledge and experience of those who started doing this work decades ago, and we contribute to the further development of the work that others after us will do. Contributions to these mechanisms are certainly a part of that knowledge gathering.
To this discussion, Gillian further importantly highlighted that while the UN structures are known to be contentious and many of us might perceive futility in engaging with them, as a global body, certainly in terms of human rights law, the UN and its structures are what we have. There is no other such high level structure whose intention is to safeguard and promote human rights globally, even if like all human created institutions it is imperfect. Alongside this, while these structures might loom large and seem inaccessible in our imaginations, there are many people who work within them who are very much like all of us, who are working within the boundaries of their positions and roles to contribute in a positive and meaningful way. Those who receive and read submissions and collate their data to inform the repository of gathered information, want and need the knowledge possessed by those of us who work on the ground.
So by making contributions we increase the footprint of the local knowledge we might possess, placing it on a ‘global stage’ where it might have the chance to influence broader discourse and high level policy changes. But our motivations need not be purely altruistic, as a benefit to our organisation is that it is also another avenue to gain visibility within the sector, as all contributions are acknowledged and disseminated with the reports.
The discussion as a whole, and in particular Devota’s exploration of refugee risks to trafficking, highlighted to the Secretariat team that as a community, the subject matter of refugees is one we have not yet explored. As a singular topic it intersects with so many other issues and while we have ventured into the broader topic of conflict, we think that a specific focus on refugees and displaced people would be a valuable conversation to engage more intentionally on. We will be exploring this as a future call topic.
And finally, the calls discussed the power of networks as a fuel to propel collective and collaborative projects, which could be harnessed for making a submission to an UN call for input. While many organisations struggle with the lack of time and resources, a group effort to provide information is manageable. Gillian and Devota shared practical tips for preparing a submission. With their help we will be compiling a short “How to” Document as a resource for our community, which we will send out as a resource in the near future. In the interim we include links below which Gillian and Devota shared on the call.
Suggested actions
As a helpful starting point, Gillian highlighted the value of monthly or quarterly check-ins to UN websites where calls for input are listed, calendar reminders could be set up on organisational calendars to assist getting into the habit of checking. And even if there might not be an intention to make a submission, it might still be valuable to see how our sector is being discussed and explored at the UN level!
If you and a team of colleagues from your region decide to submit information to a UN or government agency and would like support please reach out to Gillian who is happy to provide guidance at G.Kane1@ulster.ac.uk.
There are many reasons that making contributions to these UN mechanisms might not be on an organisation’s priority list, but knowing the basics and having the path lit as to how to go about this, there are also many reasons why to go ahead and try. As Gillian said, give it a go!
“You have vital knowledge about your context that can really make a difference on an international law and policy level” - Gillian Kane
Some helpful links for beginning to engage with UN Treaty Bodies and UN Special Procedures
Special Procedures Communications – options to raise a concern with a mandate-holder
UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children
UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery
Calls for Input – here you can search for any relevant calls for input
Example Input – this input was the submission Devota and Gillian were involved with
Example Input 2 – another input Gillian was involved with.
Tags: UN