International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) §

• The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty that commits states parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights and rights to due process and a fair trial.

  • Essentially, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights expands those rights enshrined in Arts 1–21 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (the right to life)

• Major rights:

  • The prohibition on slavery and torture (Arts 7-8)
  • Deprivation of liberty through detention and the rights of an accused to a fair trial
  • The right to move freely throughout the territory (Arts 12-13)
  • The freedom of thought, conscience, and religion (Art 20)
  • Assembly and association is prescribed with restriction only possible in accordance with the law and where necessary in a democratic society (Arts 21–2)
  • Children are to be protected as befits their minor status (Art 24)
  • Democratic rights of participation in government
  • The right of ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities to enjoy their culture, profess and practice their religion, and use their own language (Art 27)

• Implementation:  Compliance with the ICCPR is monitored by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which reviews regular reports of states parties on how the rights are being implemented. States must report one year after acceding to the Covenant and then whenever the Committee requests (usually every four years).

  • Human Rights Committee was established by the Covenant
  • State parties submit reports to the Committee on the measures they have adopted which give effect to the rights recognized in the Covenant and on the progress made in the enjoyment of those rights within their jurisdiction

• Art 41 of the Covenant enables States to declare, at any time, their recognition of the competence of the Committee to receive and consider any communications to the effect that the State concerned is not fulfilling its obligations under the Covenant.

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• The First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966 and entered into force on 23 March 1976.
  • This protocol is a model built upon the human rights inquiry that aims to enable the victims claiming to be victims of human rights violations to be heard.
  • Human Rights Committee has the jurisdiction to receive, consider and hear communications from victims of violations of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant.
  • The procedures of the First Optional Protocol to the Convention consist of
    1. communications procedure, whereby the victims of violations will be given the right to petition or complain in a form of writing submission. The written complaints will then be monitored by the Human Rights Committee where the Optional Protocol will be practiced.
    2. Inquiry procedure: the Committee will conduction inquiries in the allegation before signing, ratifying, and accessing the Protocol and transmitting the certified document to all State of the Covenant through the UN Secretary-General.
• The Second Optional to the ICCPR was adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 15, 1989 and entered into force on July 11, 1991.
  • There are 11 articles in total.
  • The Protocol aims at the abolition of the dealth penalty as it believes that it will contribute to the enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights.
  • Under Article 8, it claimed that the present Protocol shall enter into force within the three months after the date of the deposit, whereby then the Secretary-General will need to ratify or access the Protocol.
  • At the end of the procedure, the UNSG must inform and transmit the certified documents to all States of the Covenant in all six official languages.

💡 Why did countries abstain from abolishing capital punishment?

• Saudi Arabia: abstained because equal marriage rights not acceptable
• Communist vs West: traditional security vs civil political rights
• Ideology, belief, political agenda differences against Human Rights norms

- Context matters: IHR shouldn't be expected to work in all places at all times. 
	>[!example]
	>Dictatorships and Powerful states don't relent to international pressure and sanctions from abuse of IHR. 

References §

1. C04-RSTHR-Rhona Smith Textbook on International Human Rights