Human Rights Conventions, CCPR – International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights

Abstract

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) and its two Optional Protocols, together with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), constitute the core of the legally binding human rights protection at the universal level. With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, at a time where an agreement on a legally binding human rights instrument (i.e. an international treaty) could not be reached, a definition of the notion of human rights as contained in the Charter of the United Nations was achieved, and thereby an essential field of tasks of the Organization was defined. Numerous countries have made reservations to the CCPR and the Optional Protocols, thereby having limited the scope of their obligations. The success of all human rights treaties finally depends upon the willingness of states to comply with their treaty obligations. Keywords: CCPR; human rights; United Nations; Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)