Introduction
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966 and entry into force 23 March 1976, in accordance with Article 49
The full text is available here: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/ccpr.htm
Objective
Ensure the protection of civil and political rights.
A brief description is available from http://www.who.int/hhr/Civil_political_rights.pdf
Parties
- States
- Human Rights Committee (Art. 28-39): a body of 18 independent experts that monitors implementation of the Covenant
- Secretary-General of the United Nations (Actor Atlas page)
- UN Economic and Social Council (Actor Atlas page)
Values & Claims
Freedom of discrimination for what concerns civil and political rights.
Interactions2
- Reporting by State Parties (Art. 40)
- Communications and arbitration on State Party's (non-) compliance (Art. 41-42)
- Annual reporting by Human Rights Committee to the General Assembly of the United Nations, through the Economic and Social Council.
- Covenant enactment, ratification and maintenance (Art. 48-53)
Compliance and Service Levels
Via the reports submitted by the States party to the covenant.
Competent Courts
See the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and of the constitutions of the specialized agencies (Art. 46, Interpretation).
Issues
More states should ratify this optional protocol to the human rights treaties3, which then could be seen as a restriction to the policy space of the ratifying states. However in Par. 7 of the summary there is a call for greater policy space?
