1st aspect of the terms of reference of CR : examination of reports received from Member States in the framework of the implementation of UNESCO’s standard-setting instruments
The Committee’s competence in this sphere dates back to the 15th session (1968) of the General Conference, which decided (15 C/Resolution 12.2) to entrust the examination of the implementation of conventions or recommendations to a subsidiary organ of the Executive Board.
The Committee’s terms of reference, however, covered only the examination of those reports expressly entrusted to it. For instance, at its 71st session (1965) the Executive Board required the Committee to examine periodic reports relating to the implementation of the Convention and Recommendation on Discrimination in Education; at its 82nd session (1969) the report of the Joint ILO/UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers; at its 105th session (1978) reports on the implementation of the Convention and Recommendation on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Export, Import and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property.
It should be noted, in this connection, that only periodic reports were submitted to the Committee for examination, the initial special reports Member States were required to submit at the first ordinary session of the General Conference following the adoption of the Convention or Recommendation in question being examined by the Legal Committee of the General Conference.
At its 32nd session, the General Conference, by 32 C/Resolution 77, decided that henceforth it would entrust to the Executive Board, and in particular to the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations, the examination of the reports that it requested from Member States on conventions and recommendations. Accordingly, the distinction between periodic reports and special reports no longer exists. The reports adopted by the Committee following its examination will be submitted to the General Conference with the reports of Member Sates or (if so decided by the General Conference) the analytical summaries thereof, together with the Executive Board’s comments.
In addition, at its 34th session (2007), the General Conference, in 34 C/Resolution 87, decided that of UNESCO’s 31 recommendations, the Executive Board would primarily monitor the following 11 recommendations :
