A/HRC/16/32 1. In its resolution 9/8 entitled “Effective implementation of international human rights instruments”, the Human Rights Council requested the Secretary-General to report annually on measures taken to implement that resolution and on obstacles to its implementation, including recommendations for further improving the effectiveness of, harmonizing, and reforming the treaty body system. This report briefly highlights the most recent developments in this regard. 2. Information regarding the twenty-second meeting of the chairs of the human rights treaty bodies, held in Brussels on 1 and 2 July 2010, has been submitted to the sixty-fifth session of the General Assembly pursuant to its resolution 57/202. This report (A/65/190) also includes information on the outcomes of the tenth and eleventh inter-committee meetings of the human rights treaty bodies. The meeting of the chairs was for the first time not held in Geneva, the idea being to bring treaty bodies closer to the implementation level. 3. During 2010, human rights treaty bodies held 21 sessions amounting to 68 weeks in Geneva and New York (each session lasting between one and four weeks), during which 138 State party reports were reviewed in plenary sessions. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women held one additional session in October 2010, the Committee on the Rights of the Child held its three sessions in parallel chambers and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination extended its sessions by one week to address the backlog of reports awaiting review. Treaty bodies received during 2010 a total of 147 States party reports, including 13 common core documents. 4. The treaty bodies continued their work to finalize treaty-specific reporting guidelines to complement the guidelines for the common core document. In 2010, the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Human Rights Committee adopted their treaty-specific reporting guidelines. The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted its rules of procedures and the Committee against Torture adopted its amended rules of procedure. Treaty bodies continued to develop, improve and implement such new working methods as establishing the list of issues prior to reporting, notably the Committee against Torture and the Human Rights Committee, and refining the follow-up procedures to concluding observations and decisions on individual communications. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination decided that, instead of sending lists of questions before the session, the Country Rapporteur would send to the State party concerned a short list of themes with a view to guiding and focusing the dialogue between the State party’s delegation and the Committee during the consideration of the State party’s report. Such a list of themes does not require written replies. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women decided to improve the format of its concluding observations. Both the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families adopted new general recommendations/comments. Treaty bodies and the Secretariat continued efforts to harmonize and standardize their work, including through the three-day eleventh inter-committee meeting of the human rights treaty bodies and the two-day twenty-second meeting of the chairs. 5. Treaty bodies and the Secretariat examined some 11,600 items of correspondence and over 150 new individual complaints received by the treaty bodies were registered. The Human Rights Committee, the Committee against Torture, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women examined and adopted final decisions on some 110 communications in total. They issued over 55 requests for interim measures of protection in cases where lack of such protection might lead to irreparable harm for the petitioners. They also followed up on over 60 decisions in which violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture or the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had been found. 2