Question

The following Committee cannot hear individual complaints of human rights violations:

• A. Committee that monitors ICCPR
• B. Committee that monitors human rights bodies
• C. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• D. Committee on Torture

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

The Correct Option is (B): Committee that monitors human rights bodies.

Answer 2

This question asks which of the listed UN human rights treaty bodies lacks a mechanism to hear complaints brought by individuals.

1. Committee that monitors ICCPR: This is the Human Rights Committee. Under the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, individuals from states that have ratified the Protocol can bring complaints of rights violations directly to this Committee, so it does have an individual complaints function.
2. Committee that monitors human rights bodies: Unlike the other three options, which each name a specific treaty-monitoring committee with a defined individual complaints procedure under its own treaty or protocol, this option does not correspond to any such dedicated committee with a recognised individual complaints mechanism, so it is the one that stands apart as lacking that function.
3. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: This Committee, which monitors the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, can receive individual complaints under Article 14 of that Convention from states that have accepted this procedure, so it too has an individual complaints function.
4. Committee on Torture: This Committee, which monitors the Convention against Torture, can receive individual complaints under Article 22 of that Convention from states that have accepted this procedure, so it also has an individual complaints function.

Three of the four options name specific treaty bodies that each have a clearly defined, treaty-based individual complaints procedure, while the remaining option does not correspond to any such committee with that function, which is what sets it apart.

So the correct answer is Committee that monitors human rights bodies.