Reservations to Treaties and Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 24(52)

1997 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 390-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Redgwell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Effective Implementation ◽  
Rights Of The Child ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Made In

On 2 November 1994 the Human Rights Committee adopted General Comment No.24(52) relating to reservations made on ratification or accession to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is addressed to States party to the Covenant and indicates the manner in which reservations to Covenant guarantees will be treated. The fact that the Committee has issued a general comment on the topic of reservations is clear expression of the Committee's concerns regarding the number and scope of reservations which have been made. In its view these threaten to undermine the effective implementation of the Covenant as well as impair the performance of the Committee in respect of the subject matter to which the reservations apply. Though not as seriously afflicted by reservations as some other human rights treaties, most notably the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Covenant has nonetheless been the object of some sweeping reservations to which few objections have been made. There is the concern that the integrity of the Covenant may have been sacrificed in order to ensure widespread participation. “Indeed”, suggests Higgins, “one might almost say that there is a collusion to allow penetrating and disturbing reservations to go unchallenged.”

State Succession to Human Rights Treaties: Hong Kong and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

1996 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 928-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Chan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
State Succession ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Made In

In 1976 the United Kingdom ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and extended it to Hong Kong. Under the Covenant the United Kingdom assumed an obligation to submit periodic reports to the Human Rights Committee on the measures it has adopted to give effect to the rights recognised by the Covenant and on the progress made in the enjoyment of these rights.1 The United Kingdom has submitted four periodic reports on Hong Kong, in 1978,2 1988,3 19914 and 1995.5

scholarly journals Extraterritorial application of the right to life on the high sea . Commentary to the Views adopted by the Human Rights Committee of 27 January 2021, A.S., D.I., O.I. and G.D. against Italy, Communication No. 3042/2017

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartosz Pacholski
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Law ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Rescue Operation ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Right

The subject matter of this commentary, which instigates the Views of the Human Rights Committee of 27 January 2021, is the protection of one of the fundamental human rights – the right to life. The Committee, as an authority appointed to oversee compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, had to decide on the issue of Italy’s responsibility for failing to provide assistance to a boat in distress, even if the area in which the vessel was located was not within the territory of this state and other acts of international law attribute the responsibility for executing the rescue operation to a third country. According to the Committee’s views, which applied extraterritorial approach to the protection of the right to life, whenever states have the opportunity to take action for the protection of human rights they should do everything possible in a given situation to help people in need.

scholarly journals Investigating the extraterritorial application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

De Jure ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Mateus
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Military Occupation ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

The territorial scope of the application of human rights treaties has been a core discussion when dealing with the enforcement of human rights obligations imposed by human rights treaties on State Parties. In particular, this is because the conduct of a State may affect the human rights of people situated outside the State's territorial borders. Accordingly, to afford protection to the affected States, most international human rights instruments contain the so-called jurisdictional clause which aims to identify the range of people to whom States owe their human rights obligations under a treaty. However, the term "jurisdiction" has not achieved an undoubted definition as yet and remains a continued area of contention. The subject matter of this article is the extraterritorial application of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). It concerns therefore, the applicability of these human rights treaties to the conduct of a State which affects the rights of people outside its territorial borders and results in the lack of the full enjoyment of the human rights recognised in the Covenants, and which would be qualified as a violation of human rights treaty had it been undertaken on the State Party's own territory. Although most of the literature on this topic relates specifically to armed conflict and military occupation, the author applies the tests established for the determination of the exterritoriality of the treaties in circumstances inclusive of and beyond armed conflict and military occupation.

scholarly journals Wolności i prawa polityczne dziecka

2020 ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Marek Bielecki
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Developmental Issues ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
The Subject

The subject matter of the present paper is the analysis of particular normative solutions as well as the position of the judiciary and the interpretations of the doctrine in the scope of political freedom and rights that may be applied by a child. A child, as an entity equipped with the attribute of inherent and inalienable dignity, is a benefciary of the guarantees concerning the protection of human rights and freedoms proclaimed in both the national and international standards. Due to the existence of some objective obstacles such as age or developmental issues, certain rights cannot be fully applied by a child. While analyzing the indicated issues, the author of the study evaluates existing regulations as well as presents proposals for changes that could have a positive impact on children’s situation concerning the implementation of his/her political rights.

Challenging the Divide: Socio-economic Rights as Human Rights

2018 ◽  
pp. 59-78
Author(s):  
Sandra Fredman
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Mutual Dependence ◽  
Participative Democracy ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Available Resources

This chapter critically examines the ways in which civil and political rights have been distinguished from socio-economic rights, including differing ideologies, subject matter; obligations, resource implications, and justiciability. Instead of such bright-line distinctions, it suggests that all rights should be seen as giving rise to a cluster of duties: to respect, protect, and fulfil. The duty to fulfil is most challenging, especially when framed as a duty of progressive realization subject to maximum available resources. Section II assesses these concepts, particularly the attempt to establish a minimum core. It concludes that a thoroughgoing acceptance of socio-economic rights requires more than the label of ‘human right’. It also entails a re-characterization of human rights values, emphasizing inter-connectedness, mutual dependence, and a substantive conception of equality. Freedom and dignity need to be refashioned to ensure that individuals have genuine choices from a range of valuable options, within a framework of participative democracy.

scholarly journals International Human Rights Law and the Response to the covid-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-269
Author(s):  
Sarah Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Human ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Do So

Abstract States have duties under Article 12(2)(c) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to prevent, control and treat covid-19. Implementation of these three obligations is analysed, taking account of countervailing human rights considerations. Regarding prevention, lockdowns designed to stop the spread of the virus are examined. Control measures are then discussed, namely transparency measures, quarantine, testing and tracing. The human rights compatibility of treatment measures, namely the provision of adequate medical and hospital care (or the failure to do so), are then examined. Finally, derogations from human rights treaties in times of pubic emergency are discussed.

Democracy and Compliance with Human Rights Treaties: The Conditional Effectiveness of the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Daniel W Hill ◽  
K Anne Watson
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Democratic Governance ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Conditional Effect ◽  
Civil And Political Rights

Abstract Research on international human rights law suggests that the beneficial effects of treaties depend on the strength of democratic political institutions. However, democracies are, by definition, compliant with many provisions in treaties that protect civil and political rights. Additionally, theories of compliance derive from a focus on civil and political rights rather than on other rights, so we lack a good understanding of whether predictions hold for other kinds of rights. We examine compliance with the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which protects rights that are distinct from those that characterize democratic governance. To measure compliance, we create a new indicator of women's rights that offers several advantages over existing indicators. We examine the conditional effect of CEDAW using models that allow for heterogenous treaty effects. This helps to adjudicate between theories that expect treaties to be most effective in highly democratic countries and those that expect them to be most effective among partial democracies. Our findings do not support either expectation and suggest that effectiveness does not depend on democracy, at least in the case of CEDAW. This points to the need to enrich existing theories of ratification and compliance by accounting for differences in the nature of the rights protected by different treaties.

scholarly journals An Undemocratic Guardian of Democracy - International Human Rights Complaint Procedures

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
Shotaro Hamamoto
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Narrow View ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
International Human ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
The Individual

This paper discusses the individual complaints procedures established pursuant to international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It discusses the bases on which these systems have been criticised as undemocratic. After considering how these democratic failings could be ameliorated through greater involvement of domestic parliaments, it questions this narrow view of democracy that looks only to parliamentary involvement, suggesting instead that apparently undemocratic individual complaints procedures can actually have a beneficial "democratising" effect.

scholarly journals BRIDGING THE INTERNATIONAL GAP: THE ROLE OF NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS INSTITUTIONS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES IN AFRICA

Obiter ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliyu Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
National Human ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
National Human Rights Institutions ◽  
Domestic Level

While most of the United Nations (UN) treaties have committees to monitor the implementation of their provisions among their States parties, one of the major challenges they encounter is their inability to independently verify the information provided by the States parties, on the level of fulfilling their obligations to the treaties. However, the establishment of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) by the majority of UN member states was meant to not only promote and protect human rights within the territories of States parties, but also to monitor the implementation of the provisions of treaties at the domestic level. This resulted in treaty bodies to encourage NHRIs, in monitoring and providing it with information on the level of implementation of the provisions of these treaties within the territories of respective States parties. This article examines whether these institutions in Africa have been able to discharge their mandates concerning the implementation of two treaties, namely, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which is monitored by the Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which is overseen by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The NHRIs of South Africa, Morocco and Nigeria have been selected to test the effectiveness of these institutions. The study ultimately shows that the majority of these institutions are still far off from achieving their potential.

Human Rights

2019 ◽  
pp. 123-141
Author(s):  
Hurst Hannum
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Political Rights ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Human Rights Treaties ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Civil And Political Rights ◽  
Human Rights Norms

This chapter focuses on human rights in Asia and the Pacific. On the level of purely legal commitments, the great majority of Asian and Pacific states have ratified both of the two major UN human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is the most developed of the sub-regional organizations with respect to human rights, although that development has been fairly recent and, to date, relatively minimal. However, attempts to characterize or distinguish different approaches to human rights in Asia frequently include reference to a number of arguments put forward to justify Asian exceptionalism in this field. Perhaps the most widely asserted argument contends that ‘Asian values’ are different from the Western values that animate today’s international human rights norms.

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