Where is substantiation found?

Authorities for high-level precedent

High-level prece­dent for key lan­guage is derived from texts that have received high-level inter­na­tional approval by one of the sig­nif­i­cant gov­ern­ing bod­ies of the United Nations (UN) sys­tem. These bod­ies com­prise a uni­ver­sal or near-uni­ver­sal pro­por­tion of the UN Mem­ber States. They must arrive at an agree­ment with one another to approve poli­cies, polit­i­cal state­ments and other instru­ments. The agree­ments arrived at will form part of the bind­ing man­date of their respec­tive sec­re­tari­ats, be per­sua­sive across the UN sys­tem and in cer­tain cases be bind­ing in inter­na­tional law. Put sim­ply, this is because many of the same Mem­ber States that together approved cer­tain lan­guage in one agency’s gov­ern­ing body will also com­pose the Mem­ber States of the next agency’s gov­ern­ing body.

The Com­pendium offers prece­dents from the agree­ments of the Mem­ber States of the fol­low­ing UN gov­ern­ing bod­ies.

• UN Gen­eral Assem­bly (UNGA) is the pre­em­i­nent gov­ern­ing body of the UN sys­tem and con­sists of all 193 UN Mem­ber States. The scope of the Gen­eral Assem­bly’s func­tions are, to put it sim­ply, gen­eral and encom­pass both human rights and global health. Rel­e­vant high-level prece­dent can be drawn from Gen­eral Assem­bly doc­u­ments includ­ing polit­i­cal dec­la­ra­tions, out­come doc­u­ments, and other res­o­lu­tions. In the process of draft­ing, nego­ti­at­ing, and revis­ing doc­u­ments, new rights-based lan­guage may be pro­posed and struck down; in those cases, UNGA mem­bers usu­ally draw from pre­vi­ously accepted key lan­guage.

• World Health Assem­bly (WHA) is the deci­sion-mak­ing body of the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion. It includes del­e­ga­tions from every UN Mem­ber State, which gather annu­ally to address ques­tions about WHO’s gov­er­nance, bud­get, and progress. Although WHA res­o­lu­tions are cen­tred on health, they engage top­ics rang­ing from mil­i­tary aggres­sion to migrant rights.

Authorities for intergovernmental precedent

Inter­gov­ern­men­tal prece­dent for key lan­guage is derived from texts that have received inter­na­tional approval from mul­ti­lat­eral inter­gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions or bod­ies that are sig­nif­i­cant yet not uni­ver­sal. The rel­e­vant bod­ies in the United Nations (UN) sys­tem fre­quently con­tain a sub­set of the broader UN mem­ber­ship elected on a region­ally equi­table basis to rep­re­sent the whole. The agree­ments arrived at may form part of the bind­ing man­date of their respec­tive sec­re­tari­ats and will be per­sua­sive across the UN sys­tem and to other Mem­ber States. This holds even when not all Mem­ber States approve the inclu­sion of the lan­guage in ques­tion because the body that approved it is legit­i­mate as a result of its pro­ce­dure and the rep­re­sen­ta­tive nature of its mem­ber­ship.

Future edi­tions of the Com­pendium may be extended to include regional mul­ti­lat­eral organ­i­sa­tions as a source of inter­gov­ern­men­tal prece­dent.

The Com­pendium offers prece­dents from the agree­ments of the Mem­ber States of the fol­low­ing UN gov­ern­ing bod­ies.

• The United Nations United Nations Eco­nomic and Social Coun­cil (UNESC) serves as the UN’s cen­tral forum for advanc­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment’s eco­nomic, social and envi­ron­men­tal dimen­sions. It is com­posed of 54 Mem­ber States elected reg­u­larly by the UN Gen­eral Assem­bly.

• The United Nations Com­mis­sion on Nar­cotic Drugs (CND) sets poli­cies for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which in turn is respon­si­ble for mon­i­tor­ing inter­na­tional drug treaties. CND is also over­seen by and works closely with the Eco­nomic and Social Coun­cil and the Gen­eral Assem­bly. It is com­posed of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 53 geo­graph­i­cally diverse Mem­ber States elected by the Eco­nomic and Social Coun­cil.

• The United Nations Com­mis­sion on the Sta­tus of Women (CSW) is a func­tional com­mis­sion of the Eco­nomic and Social Coun­cil (UNESC). It is the most impor­tant global inter­gov­ern­men­tal body exclu­sively ded­i­cated to the pro­mo­tion of gen­der equal­ity and the empow­er­ment of women. Although its dec­la­ra­tions are non-bind­ing, it plays an instru­men­tal role in shap­ing global stan­dards on gen­der equal­ity, that is, women’s enjoy­ment of their rights in polit­i­cal, eco­nomic, and social fields.

• The United Nations Human Rights Coun­cil (HRC) is com­posed of elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 47 Mem­ber States; together, they are respon­si­ble for coor­di­nat­ing inves­ti­ga­tions of and responses to human rights vio­la­tions.

Authorities for expert precedent

Expert prece­dent for key lan­guage is derived from the reports and rec­om­men­da­tions of United Nations (UN) appointed inde­pen­dent experts. Their work often con­cerns the imple­men­ta­tion of human rights treaties by eval­u­at­ing progress, clar­i­fy­ing pro­vi­sions, and iden­ti­fy­ing vio­la­tions. In inter­pret­ing and elab­o­rat­ing on the human rights com­mit­ments made by UN mem­bers, these expert bod­ies also estab­lish prece­dents for the use, mean­ing and sig­nif­i­cance of key lan­guage within and beyond the human rights sys­tem.

The Com­pendium offers prece­dents from the reports and rec­om­men­da­tions of the fol­low­ing UN man­dated inde­pen­dent experts.

• The ten treaty bod­ies that mon­i­tor the imple­men­ta­tion of spe­cific human rights treaties. They are com­mit­tees of inde­pen­dent experts with recog­nised com­pe­tence in human rights nom­i­nated and elected for fixed renew­able terms of four years by State par­ties to the rel­e­vant human rights treaty. Cru­cially, treaty bod­ies are respon­si­ble for releas­ing guide­lines and gen­eral com­ments that clar­ify treaty pro­vi­sions; as such, their expert prece­dent con­sti­tutes inter­na­tion­ally author­i­ta­tive def­i­n­i­tions for key lan­guage con­cern­ing health and human rights.

• Indi­vid­ual Spe­cial Pro­ce­dures of the UN Human Rights Coun­cil—also known as Spe­cial Rap­por­teurs and Inde­pen­dent Experts—are human rights experts with man­dates to report and advise on human rights from a the­matic or coun­try-spe­cific per­spec­tive. To ensure their objec­tiv­ity, they are nei­ther paid nor for­mal UN staff mem­bers. They are also required to meet with gov­ern­ment actors, non­profit organ­i­sa­tions, and civil soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions when mak­ing state-spe­cific rec­om­men­da­tions, allow­ing for high lev­els of detail and nuance in the prece­dents they set. They can pro­vide author­i­ta­tive expert prece­dent for the appli­ca­tion of key lan­guage to fight health and human rights vio­la­tions.

Authorities for intergovernmental evidence

Inter­gov­ern­men­tal evi­dence is derived from the tech­ni­cal doc­u­ments pro­duced by the United Nations (UN) Sec­re­tariat and the sec­re­tari­ats of its spe­cialised agen­cies. The work of these bod­ies is car­ried out pur­suant to man­dates pro­vided by the Mem­ber States that gov­ern them. Mem­ber States are also often con­sulted on the con­tent of these doc­u­ments prior to their pub­li­ca­tion by the rel­e­vant sec­re­tariat. Because of this, the lan­guage used as well as the mean­ing and sig­nif­i­cance given and accorded this lan­guage, in these pub­li­ca­tions is usu­ally the prod­uct of direct con­sul­ta­tion with Mem­ber States as well as exten­sive research and review by lead­ing experts.

Tech­ni­cal doc­u­ments vary in their for­mal­ity and we intend to pro­vide guid­ance on the extent to which par­tic­u­lar sources of inter­gov­ern­men­tal evi­dence should be treated as an author­ity for a par­tic­u­lar topic on a case by case basis.

The Com­pendium includes evi­dence drawn from the tech­ni­cal doc­u­ments of the fol­low­ing sec­re­tari­ats.

• The UN Sec­re­tariat which is com­posed of dozens of UN depart­ments and offices, many of which spe­cialise in the human rights of women and chil­dren; human­i­tar­ian affairs, pol­icy, and advo­cacy; and law enforce­ment. The UN Sec­re­tariat ser­vices the other prin­ci­pal organs of the United Nations and admin­is­ters the pro­grammes and poli­cies estab­lished by them. The Sec­re­tary Gen­eral of the UN heads the Sec­re­tariat and is also entrusted with unique polit­i­cal pre­rog­a­tives, such as bring­ing mat­ters to the atten­tion of the Secu­rity Coun­cil under Arti­cle 99 of Chap­ter XV of the Char­ter of the United Nations.

• The World Health Orga­ni­za­tion (WHO) which is the UN’s direct­ing and coor­di­nat­ing author­ity for health. WHO’s Sec­re­tariat serves the organ­i­sa­tion’s 194 Mem­ber States by imple­ment­ing the res­o­lu­tions and deci­sions of the World Health Assem­bly through its global and regional head­quar­ters as well as its 150 coun­try offices. Its Direc­tor-Gen­eral is accorded cer­tain polit­i­cal pre­rog­a­tives under the Inter­na­tional Health Reg­u­la­tions 2005. WHO Sec­re­tariat derives nor­ma­tive author­ity from its exper­tise and polit­i­cal neu­tral­ity. It is a widely respected pub­lic health author­ity in the UN sys­tem and beyond. Its guide­lines and tech­ni­cal reports are author­i­ta­tive sources of evi­dence.

• The Joint United Nations Pro­gramme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) which is a coali­tion of 11 UN agen­cies and the World Bank help­ing to coor­di­nate the global AIDS response by engag­ing with gov­ern­ments, civil soci­ety and peo­ple liv­ing with HIV. UNAIDS is over­seen by a Pro­gramme Coor­di­nat­ing Board com­posed of rep­re­sen­ta­tives from 22 geo­graph­i­cally diverse coun­tries; the 11 UN agen­cies, includ­ing the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion, UN Women, and the United Nations Pop­u­la­tion Fund; and five non­gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tions. UNAIDS is the only UN entity that has rep­re­sen­ta­tives of civil soci­ety on its board.

• United Nations Pop­u­la­tion Fund (UNFPA) which is the United Nations sex­ual and repro­duc­tive health agency, oper­at­ing in over 150 coun­tries. It is one of four spe­cialised agen­cies over­seen by the UN Sec­re­tary-Gen­eral, head of the UN sys­tem, and its board is com­posed of rep­re­sen­ta­tives of 36 Mem­ber States. The agency also has strate­gic part­ner­ships with 138 uni­ver­si­ties around the world. UNFPA’s reports often take a human rights approach; among the recip­i­ents of its reports is the Office of the High Com­mis­sioner for Human Rights.