Human rights
The original article: https://espchhelp.ru/koon/stati/4262-human-rights .
The Charter of the United Nations (1945) proclaims that one of the purposes of the United Nations is to promote and promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for all. This call was first specifically expressed in connection with the promulgation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the 1948 United Nations General Assembly.
The Universal Declaration, adopted after the horrors of World War II, was the first attempt by all States to agree on a comprehensive list of human rights within a single document. As its name implies, it was conceived not in the form of a treaty, but rather in the form of a declaration of ancestral rights and fundamental freedoms, bearing the moral potential of a universal agreement. Thus, its goal was formulated "as a task that all peoples and all States should strive to achieve." Broadly speaking, the Universal Declaration defines two general categories of rights and freedoms: on the one hand, civil and political rights, and on the other, economic, social and cultural rights.
At the time of the adoption of the Universal Declaration, there was already a general opinion that human rights should be enshrined in legal form within the framework of a treaty that would be binding on States that agreed to be bound by its provisions. This gave rise to extensive negotiations within the framework of the Commission on Human Rights, a political body that was established in 1946 and which included representatives of States meeting annually in Geneva to discuss a wide range of human rights issues. In 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were adopted by the General Assembly. These two International Human Rights Covenants have formed the basis for a number of binding international treaties covering a wide range of human rights issues.
These treaties define human rights and fundamental freedoms and enshrine fundamental norms that have served as an incentive for the development of more than 100 international and regional conventions, declarations, sets of rules and principles in the field of human rights.
Along with the two above-mentioned Covenants, there are five other fundamental United Nations human rights treaties: the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979); the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989); and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990). Many of these treaties have optional protocols, which are separate treaties that supplement the main treaty with substantive and/or procedural provisions.
All these treaties, including both Covenants, have a similar structure. They set out a number of substantive rights that are enshrined in the so-called "normative" part of the treaty, which contains definitions of fundamental rights and fundamental freedoms in the area covered by this treaty. An independent supervisory body or committee established by the treaty itself is responsible for monitoring the implementation of the treaty by the States parties. These committees are composed of independent experts elected by the States parties, whose impartiality, independence and experience in the field of human rights give them the right to assess the progress made by the States parties in the field of compliance with the norms enshrined in the relevant treaty. The Human Rights Committee is a treaty body established for this purpose under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The present Statement of Facts, firstly, contains explanations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its two Optional Protocols, the texts of which are provided in the annexes. Secondly, this brochure describes the activities of the Human Rights Committee.
The Committee should not be confused with the Commission on Human Rights, which, as noted above, is a separate independent body. The Human Rights Committee should also not be regarded as a "global" body that deals with all human rights enshrined in all treaties; it would rather be called the Committee on Civil and Political Rights, since its functions include monitoring the implementation of civil and political rights set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The original article: https://espchhelp.ru/koon/stati/4262-human-rights .
