Examination of communications relating to human rights in UNESCO’s fields of competence (104 Procedure)

A communication under the 104 Procedure may be submitted to UNESCO by any individual, group of individual or non-governmental organization with respect to any alleged violation of human rights falling within UNESCO’s fields of competence. The author of a communication may be himself or herself the victim of the violation or be a person or organization having reliable knowledge of such violation.

Any person who is a victim of a human right violation on account of having exercised one or more rights falling within UNESCO’s competence, notably in the areas of education, science, culture or communication. These may include teachers, students, researchers, artists, writers, journalists, in short intellectuals who, by virtue of their position, come within UNESCO’s fields of competence. However, it is the activity of which the alleged victim is accused, and not necessarily his or her procession, which is decisive in determining whether a communication is admissible.

The rights falling within UNESCO’s competence are essentially the following (each article mentioned hereunder refers to the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the rights concerned are also enshrined in the 1966 International Covenants on human rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations):

• the right to education (Article 26);
• the right to share in scientific advancement (Article 27);
• the right to participate freely in cultural life (Article 27);
• the right to information, including freedom of opinion and expression (Article 19).

These rights may imply the exercise of other rights, the most noteworthy of which are:

• the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 18);
• the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers (Article 19);
• the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production (Article 27);
• the right to freedom of assembly and association (Article 20) for the purposes of activities connected with education, science, culture and information.

A letter is to be addressed to the Legal Adviser and Director of the Office of International Standards and Legal Affairs of UNESCO (7 place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France). The letter must contain a concise statement of the allegations of human rights concerned, it must be signed and must drafted in one of the Organization’s working languages (English or French). Upon receipt of the letter, and provided that it does not manifestly fall outside the purview of the 104 Procedure, the UNESCO Secretariat will send to the author of the letter a form, which must be completed and returned to UNESCO. This constitutes the formal communication which will be considered by the CR Committee.

Upon receipt of the completed form, the Secretariat acknowledges receipt of the communication, which is transmitted to the government concerned which may provide any reply it wishes to make. The communication, together with the reply of the government concerned and any additional information the author of the communication may provide, are transmitted to the CR Committee for its examination.

The CR Committee examines communications in private session, usually twice a year during the Spring and Autumn sessions of the Executive Board.

The CR Committee first considers the admissibility of the communication. If even one of these conditions is not met, the CR Committee will take no further action on the communication. Thereafter, the CR Committee turns to the examination of the merits of the communication. The CR Committee takes decisions by which it seeks to bring about an amicable solution to the situation of the alleged victim designed to advance the promotion of human rights. Since the Committee is not in any way an international tribunal, it endeavours to resolve the problem in a spirit of international cooperation, dialogue, conciliation and mutual understanding.

In its examination of the communication, the CR Committee considers all the documentation before it. The representatives of the government concerned are also invited to provide information and answer questions asked by members of the Committee on either the admissibility or the merits of the communication.

At each session, the CR Committee submits confidential reports to the Executive Board on its examination of communications, which are considered by the Executive Board in private session.

If needed, the CR Committee may decide to continue its examination of a communication at a later session, asking the author of the communication and the government concerned to provide additional information.

Following the session during which a communication has been examined by the Committee, its author and the government concerned by it are informed of the Committee’s decisions, which are not subject to appeal. However, the Committee may agree to re-examine a communication if it receives additional information or new facts.

Paragraph 14(a) of 104 EX/Decision 3.3 identifies ten conditions, all of which need to be met for the communication to be considered admissible, namely:

(i) The communication must not be anonymous;

(ii) The communication must originate from a person or a group of persons who, it can be reasonably presumed, are victims of an alleged violation of any of the human rights referred to in paragraph (iii) below. It may also originate from any person, group of persons or organization having reliable knowledge of those violations;

(iii) The communication must concern violations of human rights falling within UNESCO's competence in the fields of education, science, culture and information and must not be motivated exclusively by other considerations;

(iv) The communication must be compatible with the principles of the Organization, the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the international covenants on human rights and other international instruments in the field of human rights;

(v) The communication must not be manifestly ill-founded and must appear to contain relevant evidence;

(vi) The communication must be neither offensive nor an abuse of the right to submit communications. However, such a communication may be considered if it meets all other criteria or admissibility, after the exclusion of the offensive or abusive parts;

(vii) The communication must not be based exclusively on information disseminated through the mass media;

(viii) The communication must be submitted within a reasonable time-limit following the facts which constitute its subject-matter or within a reasonable time-limit after the facts have become known;

(ix) The communication must indicate whether an attempt has been made to exhaust available domestic remedies with regard to the facts which constitute the subject-matter of the communication and the result of such an attempt, if any;

(x) Communications relating to matters already settled by the States concerned in accordance with the human rights principles set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the international covenants on human rights shall not be considered.

Confidentiality is considered to be essential for the success of the action of the CR Committee under the 104 Procedure. For this reason, the author of the communication is required to maintain the strictest confidentiality of the entire procedure, including of all communications sent to UNESCO and received from it regarding the work of the CR Committee. Failure by the author to observe the confidentiality of the procedure may lead the Committee to decide that there is an abuse of the right to submit communications under the terms of paragraph 14(a)(vi) of 104 EX/Decision 3.3 and to strike the communication from its list.

For more information about the 104 Procedure, you may consult the official publication on the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations here.