International Human Rights and the International Human Rights System A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions The reporting process is a cycle with distinct stages: • preparation and submission of the State report • preparation and submission of other information • preparation of the list of issues and questions presented to the State under consideration for closer study • briefing the TMB • interactive dialogue with the State • preparation and release of the TMB’s concluding observations and recommendations • State response to the concluding observations and recommendations • implementation and follow up. 2.1. Preparation and submission of the State report The TMBs have issued guidelines to assist States in the preparation of their reports. The guidelines are designed to ensure that reports are presented in a uniform manner so that TMBs and States parties can obtain a complete picture of the situation of each State party with respect to the implementation of the relevant treaty.213 In 2005, the joint meeting of TMBs adopted common, or “harmonized”, guidelines.214 These guidelines encourage States to prepare and submit reports in two parts: • a Common Core Document (CCD) that contains basic information for all TMBs about the State, its constitutional and legal systems, its political system and basic demographic statistics • a treaty-specific document. The CCD should contain: • general information about the reporting State; –– demographic, economic, social and cultural characteristics of the State –– constitutional, political and legal structure of the State • general framework for the protection and promotion of human rights; –– acceptance of international human rights norms –– legal framework for the protection of human rights at the national level –– framework within which human rights are promoted at the national level –– reporting process at the national level –– other related human rights information • information on non-discrimination and equality and effective remedies; –– non-discrimination and equality –– effective remedies. 213 HRI/MC/2005/4; para. 18. 214 Harmonized guidelines on reporting to the international human rights treaty monitoring bodies; see HRI/MC/2006/3 or HRI/ GEN/2/Rev.6. These guidelines, comprising guidelines for a Common Core Document and treaty-specific documents, were accepted by the fifth inter-committee meeting and the eighteenth meeting of chairpersons of human rights treaty bodies in June 2006. Six committees (the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on Migrant Workers, the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on the Rights of the Child) have revised their guidelines for treaty-specific reports to complement the guidelines for the Common Core Document; see: HRI/ICM/2011/4; para. 19. Chapter 11: Treaty monitoring bodies: Monitoring compliance | 71