A self-evaluating state reporting system is a method for implementing international agreements. A self-evaluating state report provides information on the operation and implementation of a treaty regime. Self-evaluating means that a state monitors its own execution of an international agreement in its territory. The information may be submitted to an international institution with a supervisory role or to a technical secretariat.

The key tasks of a supervisory international organization are: collecting information and data, receiving reports on treaty implementation by States, facilitating independent monitoring and inspection, and acting as a forum for reviewing the performance of states or the negotiation of further measures and regulations. Such bodies may acquire law-enforcement and law-making functions.

This report describes the self-evaluating state reporting systems of the United Nations human rights conventions, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Labour Organisation, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the disarmament treaties and the environment treaties.

There are several characteristics of determining importance for the functioning of a reporting system. In short, these are: the sensitivity of the subject of a treaty; the economic value of the subject; the specificity of the subject; the popularity of the subject in the media; secretarial support; the flexibility of the reporting procedure; a permanent body to which to report; the quality and efficient functioning of the supervisory body; follow-up; admission to an international instrument and the existence of a national monitoring body or procedure.

It should be noted that the allocation of sufficient human and financial resources will be essential to the effectiveness of a reporting system.

It is well known that modern “Geneva” international humanitarian law has its origins in the impartial rescue and relief work undertaken by Henry Dunant in June 1859 for the wounded soldiers abandoned on the battlefield at Solferino and the proposals made thereafter in his book “A Memory of Solferino”. Henry Dunant's initiative led to the establishment of the International Red Cross Movement and the conclusion of the initial Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armies in the Field, signed in 1864. These humanitarian developments were, by 1859, sorely needed. The first half of the nineteenth century had seen an increase in the scale of warfare and with it a combination of incapacity and unconcern in relation to the wounded and war victims in general.

The problem of coordination in humanitarian emergencies arising from conflicts is not a new subject. So many seminars, round tables, declarations and publications have tackled it. Most came to the logical conclusion that stronger coordination between the humanitarian agencies was necessary, that the money had to be spent in the most effective way, and that new coordination bodies had to be created to make sure that there was no waste of operational energy.

On 1 January 1994, Mexico's awakening after New Year's Eve was rude to say the least, for that was the date chosen by a hitherto unknown guerrilla movement, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Zapatista National Liberation Army), to launch a simultaneous attack on several municipalities in the south-eastern Mexican State of Chiapas, and particularly on its jewel, well known to tourists — San Cristobal de Las Casas.