CHALLENGES FACING THE HUMAN RIGHTS TREATY BODY SYSTEM A.E. Koneva The Department of International Law Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia 6, Miklukho-Maklaya st., Moscow, Russia, 117198 The human rights treaty bodies — international organs controlling the implementation of core international human rights treaties by States and forming an interlinked system today — are being confronted by a number of compelling challenges that seriously undermine their effective functioning. <...> The current treaty body strengthening process aims to enhance the work of the treaty body system in a way that these challenges are addressed in most efficiently. <...> In these terms the legal assessment of the system’s problems is essential for finding mechanisms of their solution that would ultimately improve human rights protection at the national level. <...> Key words: human rights, UN, core international human rights treaties, strengthening the human rights treaty body system, challenges facing the human rights treaty body system. <...> Being established to monitor the implementation of the core international human rights treaties, these bodies today play a «fundamental role in promoting and protecting human rights due to the legal nature of their mandates» [14. <...> The major function of the treaty bodies is to review periodic reports submitted by States. <...> Most treaty bodies consider individual communications, except for CRC and CMW whose competence to examine individual complaints has not yet entered into force, and issue general comments or recommendations regarding the provisions of the respective treaties, they are also empowered to undertake inquiries, while one treaty body — SPT — is working largely through field missions. <...> Para. 3] The independence of these bodies is their distinctive feature that guarantees objectivity and a non-selective approach to all human rights removes them from political context [23]. 246 Вестник РУДН, серия Юридические науки, 2014, № 1 It has long been recognised that the treaty body system would benefit from ‘institutional and other forms of strengthening in order to render it more efficient and effective» [20. <...> A great number of proposals have been developed since 1990-s with the major UN initiatives to strengthen the treaty body system <...>