Reservations by States under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Its Optional Protocols, and the Practice of the Human Rights Committee

Abstract

In 1994 the Human Rights Committee, the treaty body acting under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),106 adopted its General Comment No. 24 (52)107 on issues related to reservations made to the Covenant or its two Optional Protocols.108 The General Comment did not break new ground as to the regime on reservations under human rights treaties but it certainly made explicit some of the tensions that existed between the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna Convention)109 and the approach taken to reservations under human rights treaties. The General Comment triggered off critical comments by certain States,110 and still after ten years it still remains an important background factor for the ongoing work of the International Law Commission (ILC) under the theme of reservations to multilateral treaties.111