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The International Convention On Civil And Political Rights : A Critical Analysis

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Enforcement Mechanism under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: A critical Analysis:
The international Convention on Civil and Political Rights which is a multilateral treaty came to be adopted by the United Nations on 19th of December 1976, same of which came into force on 23rd of March, 1976 as according to Article 49 the Treaty was to come into force three months after the deposit of thirty fifth instrument of ratification or accession with the Secretary General of United Nations. The Covenant imposes the obligation on the state parties to respect and protect various civil and political rights of individuals subject to its jurisdiction including the right to life, prohibition against torture and slavery, various …show more content…

Each State party can nominate upto two persons who must be the nationals of the concerned State. Members are appointed for a term of four years. However, there is also a provision for reappointment of members . There may not be there more than one member from the same country . Further, while electing members, consideration must also be given to equitable distribution of membership geographically. Further, regard must also be paid to adequate representation of different forms of civilization and principle legal systems world-over . It may be note here that the institutional continuity of human Rights Committee has been plausible. There has not been much dramatic change of membership. The fact that three members who were elected to the Committee way back in 1977 were still the members of the committee even twenty years later is surprising and equally surprising is the fact that two of them hold the office without interruption and the remaining one with only one interruption. Even these special instances aside, a substantial count of members have held the office for two or three terms. As far as the geographical representation goes, the western world has dominated the bench while Asia and Africa have been underrepresented though obviously position of Africa has become better post 2000.

It is pertinent to mention here that the members of the human Rights Committee work in their ‘personal capacity’ . By personal capacity, what is meant is that the members

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