Legal Nature of the Views of the Expert Committees Established under the Un Human Rights Treaties

Abstract

The UN Human Rights Treaties obligate the States Parties to respect and guarantee the rights provided in the treaties for everyone within their territory and subject to their jurisdiction. The States Parties to the UN Human Rights Treaties established the Expert Committees as the monitoring mechanism of these treaties. While the views of the Expert Committees have not been considered binding in the literature as well as in the decisions of the International Court of Justice and national courts as of the beginning, and it has been accepted that these views only determine the advisory principles regarding clarification of interpretation, the Supreme Court of Spain, in its decision dated 17.07.2018 and numbered 1263/2018, ruled that the views of the Expert Committees possess a binding nature. This article evaluates the impact of the judgment of the Supreme Court of Spain, which has extended beyond Spain, on the views of the Expert Committees constituting the monitoring mechanism of the international UN Human Rights Treaties.