A/HRC/25/22 I. Introduction 1. In its resolution 9/8 on the effective implementation of international human rights instruments, the Human Rights Council requested the Secretary-General to report annually on measures taken to implement the resolution and on obstacles to its implementation, including recommendations for further improving the effectiveness, harmonization and reform of the treaty body system. This report is submitted pursuant to this request and covers the period from 1 January to 1 December 2013. 2. Improving the effectiveness of the treaty body system is a multi-stakeholder endeavour, as States parties and treaty bodies each have specific competencies. On 14 September 2009, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in her statement to the Human Rights Council, called on States parties to human rights treaties and other stakeholders to initiate a process of reflection on how to streamline and strengthen the treaty body system to achieve better coordination among these mechanisms. The High Commissioner made a similar appeal before the General Assembly on 21 October 2009. Since the treaty body strengthening process was launched in late 2009, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has encouraged and facilitated dialogue among various stakeholders with a view to generating proposals for strengthening the treaty bodies. In this context, consultations were held for academics (Lucerne, Switzerland, October 2011), treaty body members (Dublin, November 2011), United Nations entities (Geneva and New York, November 2011) and States parties (Geneva and New York, February and April 2012). In June 2012, the High Commissioner released a report (A/66/860) with concrete proposals to strengthen the treaty body system addressed to States parties, treaty bodies and United Nations entities. Areas in which OHCHR could strengthen its support for the treaty bodies were also identified. 3. The General Assembly, in its resolution 66/254, requested its President to launch an open-ended intergovernmental process aimed at strengthening the treaty body system. At the time of the drafting of this report, many elements contained in Human Rights Council resolution 9/8 were under discussion in the intergovernmental process on treaty body strengthening in New York. Chapter II of the present report provides an overview of developments in the intergovernmental process in 2013, and announces anticipated next steps. Chapter III focuses on the twenty-fifth annual meeting of chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies, for which the main topics on the agenda were treaty body strengthening and harmonization of working methods. Finally, chapter IV provides an update on other developments relevant to Human Rights Council resolution 9/8 in 2013, including the status of treaty ratifications and accessions; communications and field visits; information on treaty bodies’ meetings with States parties; cooperation between committees and with other mechanisms; action taken by the committees to ensure follow-up by States to their concluding observations; treaty body engagement with civil society; OHCHR support to the treaty bodies and harmonization among the secretariats of the treaty bodies; technical assistance; and visibility and accessibility of treaty bodies, including the use of modern technologies. 4. Many reports constitute useful background to the current report, including the Secretary-General’s report on measures to further improve the effectiveness, harmonization and reform of the treaty body system (A/66/344), the previous report of the SecretaryGeneral on implementing Human Rights Council resolution 9/8 (A/HRC/22/21), as well as the following reports of the chairpersons of the human rights treaty bodies: “Overview of the human rights treaty body system and working methods related to the review of States parties” (HRI/MC/2013/2), “Other activities of the human rights treaty bodies and participation of stakeholders in the human rights treaty body process” (HRI/MC/2013/3), 3