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parties to the convention in question. In 1978 the Executive Board of
UNESCO adopted decision 104 EX/3.3, by which it established a proce-
dure to handle individual communications alleging violations of human
rights. Ten conditions for admissibility are laid down, including the re-
quirement that the human rights violated must fall within UNESCO’s
competence in the fields of education, science, culture and information,
and the need for the communication to be compatible with international
human rights interests. The condition with regard to domestic remedies
is rather different than is the case with other human rights organs, in that
all the communication needs to do is to ‘indicate whether an attempt has
been made to exhaust domestic remedies . . . and the result of such an at-
tempt, if any’. The investigating body is the Executive Board’s Committee
on Conventions and Recommendations, which is composed of twenty-
four members and normally meets twice a year in private session.
417
The
examination of communications is confidential. The Committee decides
whether a communication is admissible and then makes a decision on
the merits. The task of the Committee is to reach a ‘friendly solution
designed to advance the promotion of the human rights falling within
UNESCO’s fields of competence’.
418
Confidential reports are submitted to
the Executive Board each session, which contain appropriate information
416
See, for example, the obligation to submit reports under article 7 of the 1960 Convention
against Discrimination in Education. See also
UN Action
, p. 163.
417
Formerly the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations in Education,
ibid.
,
pp. 321–2. See also A/CONF.157/PC/61/Add.6, 1993.
418
Decision 104.EX/3.3, para. 14(k).
t h e p r o t e c t i o n o f h u m a n r i g h t s
343
plus recommendations.
419
It is also to be noted that under this procedure
the Director-General generally has a role in seeking to strengthen the
action of UNESCO in promoting human rights and initiating consulta-
tions in confidence to help reach solutions to particular human rights
problems.
420
UNESCO published a report in 1993 concerning the oper-
ations of the procedure, noting that the Committee had examined 414
cases between 1978 and 1993, of which it settled 241 individual cases.
421
It
is unclear how successful the procedure has been, in view of the strict con-
fidentiality which binds it,
422
the length of time taken to produce results
and the high proportion of cases declared inadmissible.
423
A special procedure to deal with disappeared persons has been estab-
lished by the Committee. Communications dealing with such persons are
placed on a Special List, if insufficient information is forthcoming from
the government in question, and examined by the Committee.
424
In addi-
tion to
cases
concerning violations of human rights which are individual
and specific, UNESCO may also examine
questions
of massive, system-
atic or flagrant violations of human rights resulting either from a policy
contrary to human rights applied by a state or from an accumulation of
individual cases forming a consistent pattern.
425
In the instance of such
questions
, the issue is to be discussed by the Executive Board of the General
Conference in public.
426
419
In the April 1980 session, for example, forty-five communications were examined as
to admissibility, of which five were declared inadmissible, thirteen admissible, twenty
suspended and seven deleted from the agenda. Ten communications were examined
on the merits, UNESCO Doc. 21 C/13, para. 65. Between 1978 and September 2003
508 communications were examined: see Marks, ‘UNESCO Complaints Procedure’,
p. 120.
420
Ibid.
, paras. 8 and 9.
421
See UNESCO Doc. 141/EX/6 and Weissbrodt and Farley, ‘UNESCO Human Rights Pro-
cedure’, p. 391. It was noted that during this period, 129 individuals were either released
or acquitted, 20 authorised to leave and 34 to return to the state concerned, 24 were able to
resume banned employment or activity, and 11 were able to resume a banned publication
or broadcast,
ibid.
422
See G. H. Dumont, ‘UNESCO’s Practical Action on Human Rights’, 122
International
Social Sciences Journal
, 1989, p. 585, and K. Partsch, ‘La Mise en Oeuvre des Droit de
l’Homme par l’UNESCO’, 36 AFDI, 1990, p. 482.
423
Weissbrodt and Farley note that of sixty-four cases studied only five were declared admissi-
ble, ‘UNESCO Human Rights Procedure’, p. 399. Of these, three concerned one particular
country in Latin America. One case was considered over a nine-and-a-half-year period
and another was considered over eight-and-a-half years.
424
UNESCO Doc. 108 EX/CR/HR/PROC/2 Rev. (1979).
425
Decision 104. EX/3.3, para. 10.
426
Ibid.
, para. 18.
344
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