The Human Rights Covenants: tools in the 'struggle of enforcement.' (A Look Back ... 25 Years Ago)

People illegally imprisoned have been freed, victims of human rights violations have been compensated and national laws have been improved thanks to two important United Nations treaties--the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Together with the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Optional Protocol, the Covenants form the International Bill of Human Rights, a document based on the premise that governments must answer for the way they treat individuals and must be judged by international standards.

The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Covenants' adoption will be observed by the General Assembly on 16 December.

The Covenants are part of a system which protects human rights worldwide. Governments which have signed them must report to the UN on how they ensure respect for human rights. Under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, individuals claiming that their rights have been violated can appeal directly to the UN for redress.

The Universal Declaration was adopted by the Assembly in 1948. The Declaration proclaims that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights". It spells out the rights and freedoms of all members of the human family, and has become a yardstick by which to measure the degree of respect for and compliance with international human rights standards.

The Declaration's principles were transformed into legally binding norms through the two Covenants and the Optional Protocol. These instruments were adopted by the Assembly on 16 December 1966 and entered into force in 1976. As of 31 March, 99 countries had become parties to the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 95 had ratified the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and 52 had ratified the Optional Protocol.

What the Covenants say

The Covenant on Civil and Political Rights recognizes the right of every human being to: life, liberty and security; privacy; freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and from torture; freedom from slavery; immunity from arbitrary arrest; a fair trial; recognition as a person before the law; immunity from retroactive sentences; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; liberty of movement; peaceful assembly; and freedom of association.

The Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the right to: work and to free choice of employment; fair wages; form and join unions; social security; special protection for families, mothers, children and young persons; adequate standards of living, including food, clothing and housing; health; education; and participation in cultural life.

Both Covenants proclaim the right of all people to self-determination and guarantee the rights they proclaim without discrimination of any kind as to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Both assume that human rights may need to be restricted when unfettered exercise would interfere with the rights of others, although nothing in them should be taken to imply that anyone has the right to seek to destroy or unduly limit the rights set out in those instruments.

However, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights allows a State to limit or suspend the enjoyment of certain rights in case of officially "proclaimed public emergencies which threaten the life of a nation".

These limitations must be reported to the UN and cannot include the rights to life, freedom from torture, freedom from enslavement or servitude, protection from imprisonment for debt, freedom from retroactive penal laws, the right to recognition as a person before the law, and freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

UN Committees

Special committees have been created to oversee implementation of human rights covenants, for example, the Human Rights Committee which deals with civil and political rights, and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. They review in public reports from States on measures taken to give effect to the treaties and progress achieved in those nations.

Each body has 18 members, experts who serve in their individual capacity. They ask representatives of States, who present the reports orally, detailed and often pointed questions about the situations in their countries, and may ask for more information.

Under the Optimal Protocols to the Covenant, individuals who feel they are victims of human rights violations can file a complaint with the Committee. If the Committee deems the complaint admissible, it is brought to the attention of the State allegedly violating the Covenant. The State must submit, within six months, explanations clarifying the matter and indicating the remedy, if any, that it has taken.

The number of complaints have grown substantially in recent years. Several refer to cases of alleged killings by police, disappearances, torture and arbitrary arrests.

"Some rights are more broken than others", says Committee member Rosalyn Higgins of the United Kingdom. "At the heart of the complaints, we see a great number that deal with issues related to security of the person--the right to be free from torture and physical maltreatment and the right to life. Unfortunately, we see cases that relate to disappearances. We see quite a few cases making allegations about a lack of fair trial. We also see some cases . . . about limitations on freedom of speech or freedom of religion or trade union rights, and freedom of movement."

The struggle continues

"The Covenants and the Optional Protocol have become an important tool in the struggle to enforce human rights in the world", says Paul Martin, Director of the Center of Human Rights at Columbia University's School of International Affairs. "Human rights activists are now able to point to something concrete when dealing with violators of human rights. This is it--the Covenants--a reference point with which we can measure human rights standards. So one can say that the Covenants are definitely used to make countries improve their human rights records, even if they have not signed any of the Covenants or the Optional Protocol, just by the fact that it shows an international momentum, a commitment to human rights, which it is hard for any country to overlook."

"The strength of the Covenants is that, once a country has ratified them, the Governments have to submit reports on the situation of human rights", says Elissavet Stamatopoulou-Robbins, Chief of the New York Office of the Centre for Human Rights. "This allows the United Nations the ability to check on countries' human rights policies and to encourage changes in the right direction. Ratification of the Covenant means not only holding countries accountable, but also building long-term national infrastructure for the protection and promotion of human rights."