Summary of an article by Markus Schmidt on "Human Rights" No. 2 Spring 1998, a quarterly review of the office of the UN HCHR

"One proposal put forth by the Human Rights Committee in 1993, for the World Conference on Human Rights, suggested the addition of a paragraph to article 5 of the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, reading approximately as follows: "States parties undertake to give effect to the decisions of the Committee". At Vienna, the proposal was not debated by the Drafting Committee, and it admittedly is a long term endeavor; the current political obstacles to the adoption of such a proposal remain formidable, and the majority of the States parties to the Covenant could be expected to oppose it, but that does not mean that it should not be further discussed.

Another, still more radical, proposal consists in the institution of ONE STANDING BODY with the competence to consider and adjudicate complaints under all existing procedures. At present, few States appear to endorse the creation of such a standing body. More daunting still for many is the prospect of a powerful UN Human rights judiciary with the power to adopt binding decisions. However, time works in favour of such developmentes".

Other proposals directly or indirectly suggested by the article:

- wider adhesion to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (they are 92);

- the Human Rights Committee should abandon the practice of consensus and, instead, adopt decisions on the basis of majority voting;

- to publish "black lists of uncooperative states";

- to pass the so-called "enabling legislations", i.e. legislation which elevates the decisions of UN and regional human rights bodies to the level of enforceable judgements at the national level (as it is the case in Peru' and Colombia).