Appendix III: Shadow reporting: revised 2004.

ORGANIZING THE SHADOW REPORT

The shadow report should be focused carefully and provide a framework for developing very specific points that the Committee can use in questioning the State pary. While the report may ultimately be intended for a large audience, including government officials and the public, it should be planned for effectiveness with the Committee. NGOs should plan the report and its key points as a basis for lobbying. As an audience, the Committee has particular requirements:

* The Committee members will read the shadow report to obtain specific information to help them evaluate the government report.

* The Committee members will not be familiar with the political and economic background of every country. They may need contextual information to understand the issues.

* The Committee members have a limited amount of time and want to receive information about the most pressing issues in a concise format.

* The Committee members prefer to obtain reports prior to the session.

Obtaining the Government Report

The government report is the basis of the CESCR review. The Ministry of Justice usually prepares the report and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs submits it to the United Nations. The government's report is a public document and should be available from the Foreign Affairs Ministry once it is submitted to the United Nations.

Government reports also are available from the United Nations for public distribution after they are translated into the six official United Nations languages. However, the reports may not be available until fairly close to the beginning of the CESCR session. If the report cannot be obtained from the government, check the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) web site (see Useful Contacts below) where most reports are posted prior to the session. Alternatively, contact IWRAW or the CESCR Secretariat for information on the status of particular country reports.

If the report is available, the shadow report should be formatted to resemble the structure of the government report to facilitate comparative review of parallel information. If the report is not available, make note of the government's failure to distribute or disseminate it in the shadow report.

Coordinating the Contributors

An individual NGO can prepare a shadow report. A group of NGOs also may choose to collaborate in preparing a report. The Committee recommends, where possible, collaboration among NGOs to produce a single, consolidated report that represents a broad consensus on issues, without duplication and contradictions. Collaboration also can enhance the impact of the report on the government, as it can demonstrate a consensus voice and existence of broad constituencies in favor of positions taken in the report. If submitting a report in collaboration with other NGOs, it is important to budget time for coordination, identifying the strengths of each participating NGO, dividing the tasks to be undertaken, resource- and cost- sharing, and final editorial decision-making.

Organizing the Report for Maximum Impact

The Committee encourages NGO participation in its activities. It requires, however, that all information submitted to it be (1) specific to the Covenant articles; (2) relevant to the matters under consideration by the Committee or its pre-sessional working groups; (3) based on documentary sources and properly referenced; (4) concise and direct; and (5) reliable and not abusive. The NGO's goals in writing a shadow report should be (a) to prepare an honest report on the State party's compliance with its ICESCR obligations that assists with the constructive dialogue between the Committee and the reporting state; and (b) to provide reliable, detailed, and timely information about the state of women's human rights within the country.

The following key suggestions for organizing the report are based on 10 years of experience in submitting NGO information to United Nations human rights treaty bodies:

1. Organize the information according to articles of the Covenant, not by issue. If an issue concerns more than one article, choose the article that is most on point for a full discussion. Indicate briefly the other articles that may cover the issue.

2. Be as concise and direct as possible; limit the report to no more than 30 pages. Not all the Committee members will be equally interested in each country or issue. Bear in mind also that the language you use (English, Spanish, French preferred) may not be the reader's first language. Regardless of length, provide a table of contents and executive summary.

3. The executive summary is essential to draw attention to particular issues. It should include specific language that the Committee can use in asking questions of the government and in drafting concluding observations. An executive summary generally should be no more than three pages.

4. Identify the problems, discuss the evidence, and provide specific suggestions for change. Indicate who in the government is in position to make the suggested change. Indicate the role of civil society, but do not eliminate government responsibility.

5. Prioritize issues. The Committee will not be able to focus adequate attention on more than a few issues. Identify and articulate clearly the most important issues.

6. Analyze any relevant State party reservations and describe NGO efforts to promote their withdrawal.

7. Provide relevant background information about the country or region, including prevailing trends relevant to economic, social and cultural rights in the country.

Organizing the Content

The shadow report should be organized according to the articles of the Covenant. Doing so indicates knowledge of the treaty and respect for the Committee's time. It also allows for parallel commentary on information provided in the government report.

1) Identify issues and the applicable articles of the ICESCR. This will be based on experience and knowledge.

2) Gather facts and evidence to illustrate the issues. Documentation is important to make the case for both the necessity for and the possibility of change. Documentation can include statistics, legal cases, testimony of individuals, news clips, video-tapes, academic research, and existing national and local laws and regulations. Statistics are most useful if disaggregated by gender, age, marital status, class, ethnicity, and circumstances such as migrant status. Case histories and testimony should be complete, including enough detail and contextual information to indicate the impact of particular actions or inaction by the government.

3) Identify major obstacles and recommend approaches to removing them. Consider the practical approaches to solving the problem. Identify which actors should be involved. Indicate who needs to be trained or made aware of the Covenant and national laws and regulations affecting economic, social, and cultural rights (e.g., judges, police, prosecutors, women's advocates, school administrators, teachers, etc). Keep in mind how people can be involved in monitoring the process.

Recommendations for action should be concrete, suggesting specific action. Language from the Committee's General Comments or prior Concluding Observations may be helpful. The shadow report should address questions that remain open from consideration of earlier government reports, as stated in the Committee's Concluding Observations. Specificity is important. For example, "the government should protect women from economic exploitation" is not precise. More helpful would be to propose:

   The government should a) collect accurate data on the disparity in
   income and wages, incidences of forced labor, sexual harassment (on
   the national level, local level, etc.); b) increase the allocation
   of resources to enforce anti-discrimination and anti-trafficking
   laws by 50%; c) train the police and other officials to insure that
   they offer women timely assistance and prevention measures.

4) Dealing with Reservations. Reservations to the Covenant are supposed to be made with a view to withdrawing them as the laws, economics, and culture evolve to allow for more readily meeting Covenant obligations. They should not reflect a total refusal to change. If your government has made reservations to the Covenant, it is important to suggest the changes that would allow for their withdrawal. This could include analyzing the reservations in light of the current law and state of society to suggest narrowing the reservations, or suggesting changes to law and/or policy that would lead to their withdrawal.

5) Special attention to context and analysis. If the government report provides general information on an issue, the Committee will want to relate that information specifically to women in the country. It may be up to the NGO to provide that information.

Context also is important for appropriate evaluation of a particular situation. For example, if an employment law includes remedies available only through an administrative system, such as the Ministry of Labor or a local authority, it is important to analyze the general attitude of that authority toward women. If the court system generally has not been receptive to claims by a particular constituency (for example, ethnic minority women), it is important to note how judges and court personnel are selected and trained and address the obstacles and opportunities for changing that system.

SUGGESTED FORMAT FOR SHADOW REPORTS

To provide essential information and guidance to the reader, the report should include:

1. Title page including title, author(s) and date of the report.

2. Executive summary (see below).

3. Table of contents.

4. Brief introduction to provide information about the production of the report.

5. The main discussion, organized by Covenant article, including recommended actions.

6. Concluding remarks.

7. Appendix (to include text of important laws, academic reports or publications, studies, media clips, or other statistical data).

Executive Summary

An executive summary is a very brief presentation of information that allows busy readers to instantly get a clear idea of the main points in the shadow report. A well-written executive summary saves the reader time by helping him or her determine which part of the report is of most interest. It is especially useful to Committee members whose first language is not the language in which the report is written.

An executive summary is usually no more than three pages long. Information must be concise, accurate, and carefully selected from the full report. It should include:

* the key points of the report;

* a brief statement of the evidence/data included to support those points;

* the recommendations for government action to address the key issues, in language the Committee can use in its Concluding Observations.

The executive summary usually is the most difficult part of the report to write. It should state clearly where in the report the reader can find more details about a particular point.

Suggestions for drafting the executive summary include:

* Summarize the key information about each article of the Covenant in one paragraph. If you cannot do this, it probably means that the information in the discussion section does not have a clear focus and may need to be rewritten.

* Reduce every important paragraph to one concise sentence.

* Prioritize the issues and information; not every sentence or paragraph needs to be represented in the executive summary.

PRESENTATION OF REPORTS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE

Working and Communicating with the CESCR Committee

The Useful Contacts Section below provides contact information for the Secretary of the Committee. The Committee generally meets in Palais Wilson in Geneva. Sometimes the meetings are held at the Palais de Nations, Geneva. The OHCHR Web site should include this information, or contact the Office of the High Commissioner directly.

To attend meetings or sessions of the Committee, NGO representatives must obtain an identity photo-badge at the United Nations security office. To obtain the badge, an NGO must present a letter of accreditation and an identity document, such as passport, to the UNOG Security and Safety Services office noted below. Letters must name the person(s) individually. A letter without the individual's name may not be accepted. An NGO should request accreditation from the CESCR Secretariat at least one month in advance of the session.

NGO Participation at the CESCR Session

There are several stages at which NGOs may approach the Committee members. The process is relatively open, and at least some of the members are willing to work directly with NGOs.

* At the Pre-Sessional. Participation in the pre-sessional working group is important for NGOs. This is when a list of issues for the review of periodic reports is created and given to State parties. The pre-sessional working group meets at the end of the Committee session one year prior to the session at which the State Party's report will be reviewed (for April/May session, for example, the pre-sessional will be held after the close of the April/May session the previous year). An NGO can submit relevant information and/or a report directly to the appointed country rapporteur or to the Secretariat for general distribution to the working group. An NGO also can make an oral presentation during the first morning of the working group meeting.

* At the Committee Session. Most Committee members want written shadow reports to enable them to ask useful questions. NGOs should deliver 25 copies of their report to the Secretariat at least one week prior to the session. Some Committee members and the Secretariat will accept submission by e-mail, but hard copies should be delivered as a backup. In addition to shadow reports, NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC and NGOs without status (but sponsored by an organization in consultative status) may submit a very short, double-spaced, written statement (2000 and 1500 words, respectively), which will be translated into the working languages of the Committee and issued as a United Nations document. The written statement must be sent to the CESCR Secretariat at least three months in advance of the session for which it is intended.

The Committee reserves the first day of the Session for NGO oral presentations. NGOs that want to present information orally should inform the Committee in advance of the Session. This is the best opportunity to be heard by a number of the Committee members and other experts at one time. Each speaker will have between 5 and 15 minutes to make a presentation, depending upon the number of speakers. Simultaneous interpretation in English, Spanish, French, and Russian is provided. Given the limited amount of time for the presentation, the oral statement should (a) focus specifically on the provisions of the Covenant, (b) be of direct relevance to the matters under consideration by the Committee, (c) be reliable, and (d) not be abusive. In addition, the Committee invites NGOs to discuss the government's report, to indicate whether there was NGO consultation/cooperation in the government report preparation, to discuss the main critical points of the shadow report, and to propose solutions to problems encountered in the country in implementing the Covenant.

Many of the Committee members can be approached individually before and after the working sessions to talk informally about the issues that concern NGOs. Some may be willing to have a full-length meeting before a working session or at midday. Be prepared for these meetings by having your specific points of concern ready to be conveyed in a few words and/or on a single sheet of paper.

USEFUL CONTACTS AND RESOURCES

CESCR SECRETARIAT:

CESCR Secretary

Office of CESCR

Office1-025, Palais Wilson

Palais des Nations

8-14 Avenue de la Paix

1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Tel. [phone]

Fax [phone]

UNITED NATIONS OFFICE AT GENEVA (UNOG)

Security and Safety Services

Villa Les Feuillantines

13 Avenue de la Paix, Geneva

Open Monday - Friday, 8:00 am to 2:30 pm (for passes for Palais de Nations)

Security office for Palais Wilson is at the entrance to Palais Wilson

CESCR COMMITTEE WEBSITE

www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/cescr.htm

UNHCHR WEBSITE CONTAINING TREATY DATABASE

www.unhchr.ch (click on DOCUMENTS; click on TREATY BODIES DATABASE and follow search options)

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA HUMAN RIGHTS LIBRARY

www.umn.edu/humanrts

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTION WATCH

www.igc.org/iwraw

DOCUMENTS AND LIBRARY RESOURCES

M. Freeman, Equality and Rights (background paper on CESCR Article 3) URL: www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/E.C.12.2002.5.En?Opendocument OR access via IWRAW Web site (Links of Interest)

University of Toronto Women's Human Rights Library URL: www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/diana/index.htm