said in January 2004: ‘We must attack the roots of violence and genocide [...] We must protect especially the rights of minorities, since they are genocide’s most frequent targets’.2 In April 2004, he launched an ‘Action Plan to Prevent Genocide’ involving the whole UN system. Two of the aims of this Action Plan are to provide early and clear warning and to translate this into prompt and decisive action when genocide is about to take place. This is a welcome development. NGOs, including MRG, have long argued that there is a need for the UN to establish a mechanism that will enable early warning in situations of tension involving minorities to be translated into concrete and effective action to protect the rights of minorities and prevent conflict. Whether this new Action Plan will be sufficient or whether a dedicated mechanism on minorities and conflict prevention would be more effective remains to be seen. National NGOs have an important role in convincing sceptical governments, fearful that minority rights might mean the break-up of states, that it is in governments’ interests to support minority protection because it will reduce not create situations of conflict. Treaty bodies and Charter bodies The UN human rights mechanisms can be divided into two categories, those created through an international treaty and those created using the authority of the UN charter. The so-called ‘charter bodies’ are political bodies, with members representing their governments. (An exception to this is the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and its working groups, which are made up of independent experts; see section 4.3.) The advantage of charter bodies is that they can address issues in any state; however, it is important to remember the political nature of these bodies because this impacts on their effectiveness. Each ‘treaty body’ gets its authority from an international treaty. Some consider the treaty bodies to have more impact than charter bodies because of the legally-binding nature of international treaties; however, they can only address issues in states that are party to the treaty. Section 3 discusses the treaty bodies and section 4 addresses UN charter-based bodies. International treaty law A treaty is a legal agreement between states. Treaties are drafted Article or part of an Article of a treaty. Reservations are permitted by states; this means that each provision in a human rights treaty except when the treaty expressly forbids it or if the reservation is is subject to negotiation and alteration. When the draft is com- ‘incompatible with the object and purpose of the treaty’. If a state pleted the GA ‘adopts’ the text. The next step is for each state to makes a reservation that another state believes to be against the decide whether to become a party to the treaty, that is, whether object and purpose of the treaty, the second state can register the treaty will be law for that state. Treaties are only legally bind- an objection. However, even if other states object to a reserva- ing on the states that have specifically agreed to accept them. tion, the reservation remains. Reservations to human rights There are different stages in the process whereby a state treaties are a major problem, since the effects are to weaken becomes party to a treaty: Signature – the state signs the treaty protection for, or even legally deny some rights to, people within and shows its intention to become legally bound in future. After that state. States can also enter a declaration to a treaty. A dec- signature, states are obliged ‘to refrain from acts which would laration is often a definition or a clarification of what the state defeat the object and purpose of the treaty’.3 Ratification – the believes the treaty provision to mean. Some declarations are very process whereby a state confirms it will be legally bound by a similar to reservations and can also be problematic. treaty. There is often a period of time between signature and rati- To check whether your state has made any reservations or fication to allow the state to undertake domestic processes or declarations to the main human rights treaties, go to the OHCHR change domestic legislation so that it complies with the provi- treaty body database: http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/ sions of the treaty. After a certain number of states have ratified Statusfrset?OpenFrameSet and select the relevant country, a treaty the treaty ‘enters into force’, that is, it becomes legally followed by the treaty. effective for those states. Accession and succession are differ- The UN also issues another type of international instrument ent processes whereby a state becomes legally bound by a called a Declaration. Declarations apply to all states; however, treaty. To find out if your state is a party to the main human rights unlike treaties, they are not legally binding. A Declaration is a treaties, go to the OHCHR website: http://www.unhchr.ch/pdf/ statement of the aims or ideals of states. The most well-known report.pdf UN Declaration is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights When a state ratifies, accedes to or succeeds to a treaty, it (UDHR) and the most relevant to minorities is the Declaration on can modify some of the provisions by making a reservation. This the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious is a statement that changes or even negates the provision in an and Linguistic Minorities (UNDM). MINORITY RIGHTS: A GUIDE TO UNITED NATIONS PROCEDURES AND INSTITUTIONS 7