HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONTINUES CONSIDERATION OF DRAFT GENERAL COMMENT ON ARTICLE 2 OF THE COVENANT

Human Rights Committee
76th session
29 October 2002





The Human Rights Committee this morning continued its consideration of a draft General Comment on article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights entitled "The Nature of the General Legal Obligations Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant".
Article 2 of the Covenant stipulates that each State party should undertake to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the Covenant, without distinction of any kind; undertake to take the necessary steps to adopt legislative or other measures to give effect to the rights recognized in the Covenant; ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms are violated should have an effective remedy; ensure that any person claiming such a remedy should have his or her rights determined by competent authorities; and ensure that the competent authorities should enforce such remedies when granted.
The Committee continued its first reading of the remaining draft paragraphs of the text, with Experts contributing amendments to them. Paragraph 9 of the text, which was adopted after amendment, says that as individuals are the beneficiaries of the Covenant guarantees, the Covenant does not protect the legal rights of juridical entities as such, although the rights of such entities are recognized in the context of rights that are to be enjoyed collectively, such as the right to freedom of association under article 22 of the Covenant or the rights of members of minorities under article 27 of the same treaty.
The Experts exchanged views on States parties obligations to secure the Covenant rights to all persons who might be within their territory and to all persons subject to their jurisdiction, which is paragraph 10. It says that anyone within the power or effective control of a State party enjoys the rights laid down in the Covenant even if not situated within the territory of a State party. That principle also applies to those within the power of effective control of the forces of a State party acting outside that State party's territory, including a national contingent of a State party assigned to international peace-enforcement operations or peacekeeping.
According to paragraph 10, the participation of a State party in international organizations cannot automatically relieve the State party from its obligations. The enjoyment of Covenant rights is not limited to citizens of States parties but should also be available, regardless of nationality or stateless, to asylum-seekers, refugees, migrant workers and other persons who might find themselves under the jurisdiction of the State party.
According to paragraph 11 of the text, the article 2 obligation requiring that States parties secure Covenant rights for all persons in their territory and all persons under their control might entail an obligation not to extradite, deport, expel or otherwise remove a person from their territory to where there was a risk involving irreparable harm in contravention to articles 6 and 7 of the Covenant. Article 6 says that every human being has the inherent right to life, and article 7 stipulates that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Paragraph 12 of the draft text deals with States parties' obligations requiring them to take the necessary steps to give effect to the Covenant rights in the domestic order. Unless the Covenant's rights are already protected by their domestic laws or practices, States parties are required to make such changes to domestic laws and practices as are necessary to ensure their conformity with the Covenant.
The purpose of the adoption of General Comments, among other things, is to assist States parties in their implementation of the provisions of the Covenant; to draw their attention to insufficiencies disclosed by a large number of reports; and to suggest improvements in the reporting procedure and to stimulate the activities of those States parties and international organizations in the promotion and protection of human rights.
When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m. this afternoon, it is scheduled to consider in a private meeting its draft concluding observations on Togo, whose report has already been examined during the current session. The next public meeting will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, 30 October, when the Committee will hear the report of the Special Rapporteur for follow-up on concluding observations on country reports.



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