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Process Toward a
Human Rights Convention
for Older Persons
The process to
adopt a human rights convention by the United Nations usually follows
the following steps.
-
The UN General Assembly
adopts a resolution to create an independent UN Committee to elaborate
a Convention on a specific topic.
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In the
beginning, various groups may develop several drafts. The UN Committee
tasked to develop the Convention decides which document will become the
official working draft of the convention.
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Member States
must negotiate a text for a Convention. They may take several years to
develop the provisions and language for the Convention. Many groups,
with specific expertise or concerns, will suggest language to the
Committee. As Member States hear and debate many ideas, they must write
language that suits the majority. The negotiation phase is the longest
one in the Treaty creation.
Once a convention
is adopted by the United Nations, a State may:
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Sign:
government approves the Convention and intends to secure ratification
in its legislative branch.
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Ratify:
through ratification, a country becomes a "States Party"—member—to a
convention, and pledges to implement and enforce its principles. Its
national laws must conform to the provisions of the convention.
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Sign and
ratify with reservations, understandings and declarations (RUDs).
Member States use RUDs to create certain limits to a Convention, or to
make clear how a Member State interprets some elements of the
convention.
During the
negotiating phase, the UN Committee sometimes decides in a separate
procedural article that a specific number of Member States must become
"States Parties" so the Convention can "enter into force". Before such
time, the convention is not fully enforceable on any state, even if
that state has signed and ratified it. A convention assumes the full
force of international law when the pre-determined number of states
becomes states parties.
  
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