Human Rights : Civil And Political Rights
Human Rights / Education

Human Rights : Civil And Political Rights

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Introduction

International human rights regime has been designed to protect the full range of human rights required for people to have a full, free, safe, secure and healthy life. The right to live a dignified life can never be attained unless all basic necessities of life, namely, work, food, housing, health care, education and culture are adequately and equitably available to everyone. Based squarely on this fundamental principle of the global human rights system, international human rights law has established individual and group rights relating to the civil, cultural economic, political and social spheres. These however, have developed step by step. Therefore, they are also referred to as three generations of human rights. These are:

    • First Generation Rights: Civil And Political Rights;
    • Second Generation Rights: Economic, Social And Cultural Rights;
    • Third Generation Rights: Solidarity Rights. [Group Rights]

The above mentioned rights have been placed in different International Conventions, Covenants, Declarations etc.

 

  • Codification Of Rights

As has been explained in the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights
that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] was proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations and as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. Accordingly, the UDHR contained almost all types of rights: Civil, Political, Economic, Social, Cultural etc. At the same time the UDHR was a mere declaration and not a treaty imposing legal obligations on the states. International community, while looking for an International Bill of Rights was also interested in a set of rights and freedoms as a part of an international agreement as a treaty which would be legally binding on the states. Thus there emerged a process to establish Human Right Treaties. Since than a number of treaties known as International Covenants or conventions have been adopted. Seven of these covenants are known as core International Human Rights Treaties. These are called Core, as they are concerned with the most important aspects of Human Rights of individuals and groups and provide for the machinery for their monitoring. The Treaties are

    1. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination [1965].
    2. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [1966].
    3. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [1966].
    4. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women [1979].
    5. Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment [1984].
    6. Convention on the Rights of the Child [1989].
    7. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families [1990].

From among the above two treaties namely International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights are considered most important. These two treaties along with UDHR constitute what is known as International Bill of Rights. Below we shall discuss the nature of Civil and Political Rights as described in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 

Civil And Political Rights

Civil and Political Rights are often referred to as the “first generation” or “first dimension” of human rights, which distinguishes them from the economic, social and cultural rights as well as from collective or solidarity rights of the third generation. It is suggested that civil and political rights are the most important and lasting achievements of the American and French revolutions in the late eighteenth centuries and other democratic revolutions of nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These are based on rationalistic doctrine of natural law according to which human beings are born free and equal in dignity and inalienable rights. These rights and machinery to monitor them are contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 

  • Adoption Of The International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights

As already mentioned when the UDHR was adopted broad agreement already existed that the rights it contained should be translated into legal form as treaties, which would be directly binding on the states that agreed to be bound by its terms. In fact right from the time of the establishment of Human Rights Commission in 1946 extensive negotiations for formulation of such treaties began.

A milestone was reached on 16 December 1966, when the UN General Assembly adopted two covenants that is International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR] and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The drafting of the Covenants was a long and arduous process; while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] took only 18 months to complete, the two covenants took eighteen years. The value of these instruments is apparent: first, they defined more explicitly the scope and standards of those human rights which are considered fundamental and legally binding to the States which have ratified these treaties. Under international law a multilateral treaty is binding to only a State, which has ratified the treaty, in simple meaning, has shown its willingness to make herself accountable to the treaty. ICCPR provides a mechanism for implementation of the rights contained. The ICCPR contains 53 articles. States are to respect and ensure those rights upon becoming the parties to the ICCPR. It is true that most of the substantive articles of the ICCPR define and amplify corresponding provisions in the UDHR.

The provisions of the ICCPR are explicit as to the rights to be protected and also places a positive obligation on States to ensure such protection. States have also an obligation to implement these articles, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

 

  • The Rights

The Basic Characteristics Of ICCPR Can Be Described As:

    • The states freedom of action is limited, as the state is obliged to respect such rights.
    • The rights primarily are individual in nature.
    • All state’s have the responsibility to respect these rights, irrespective of the political system and level of development.
    • They are justiciable, which means that a court or a tribunal is able to assess, if a violation has occurred.

Following rights are identified as Civil and Political rights under the International Covenant on Civil Political Rights in Articles 6 to 27:

    1. Right to Life [Article 6].
    2. Prohibition against Torture [Article 7].
    3. Prohibition against Slavery [Article 8].
    4. Right to Liberty and Security of person [Article 9].
    5. Humane Treatment to persons who are deprived of personal Liberty [Article 10].
    6. No one shall be arrested for failure of contractual obligations [Article 11].
    7. Liberty of Movement and Freedom to Choose residence [Article 12].
    8. Right to Aliens not to be expelled without the process in accordance with law [Article 13].
    9. Equality before and equal protection of courts and tribunals [Article 14].
    10. Non-retroactive application of laws [Article 15].
    11. Right to Recognition as a person before the law [Article 16].
    12. Respect to privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on honor and reputation of the individual [Article 17].
    13. Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion [Article 18].
    14. Right to hold opinions without interference [Article 19].
    15. Prohibition against propaganda for war shall be prohibited by law [Article 20].
    16. Right of peaceful assembly [Article 21].
    17. Right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of interests [Article 22].
    18. Right to family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society [Article 23].
    19. Right to Child [Article 24].
    20. Right to participate and vote in elections [Article 25].
    21. All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law [Article 26].
    22. Right of Minorities [Article 27].

 

  • Optional Protocols

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights also has two optional protocols as supplements. These protocols contain further obligation for the states. However, these are optional and states are free to accept or not accept. Having accepted they become bound by them. The first Optional Protocol to the International Convention on Civil and Political-Rights enables the Human Rights Committee, set up under the terms of that covenant to receive and consider communications from individuals claiming to be victims of violations of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. This was adopted along with ICCPR in 1966.

Under Article 1 of the Optional Protocol a state party of the Covenant that becomes a party to the Protocol recognizes the competence of the Human Rights Committee to receive and consider communications from the individuals subject to its jurisdictions who claim to be victims of a violation by that State of a right set forth in the covenant. Individuals who make such a claim and who have exhausted all available domestic remedies are entitled to submit written communications to the Committee.

The second optional protocol was adopted in 1989. It promotes abolition of death penalty. According to this protocol no one within the jurisdiction of signatory state shall be executed and each state party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction. The protocol has been adopted on the belief that abolition of the death penalty contributed to enhancement of human dignity and progressive developed of human rights.

 

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