An analysis of the UN human rights treaty bodies, their methods of interpretation, their effectiveness and issues of legitimacy.

"The first ideas ... originated from a conference held in Utrecht on ... the 35th anniversary of the two 1966 Covenants, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights."--Foreword.

This publication reproduces the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the nine core international human rights treaties and their optional protocols in a user-friendly format to make them more accessible, in particular to government officials, civil society, human rights defenders, legal practitioners, scholars, individual citizens and others with an interest in human rights norms and standards.

Since its establishment the work of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has been subject to many interpretations, theories, comments or conclusions. This comprehensive book dissects every aspect of the UNHRC’s work and analyses the efficiency of, and interactions between, its mechanisms. Authored by the first Secretary of the UNHRC, this book provides unique practitioner insights into the complex decision making processes of the Council alongside the core variations from its predecessor.

Now in its third edition, this book is the authoritative text on one of the world's most important human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Covenant is of universal relevance. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966 and in force from 1976, it commits the signatories and parties to respect the civil and political freedoms and rights of individuals. Monitored by the UN Human Rights Committee, the Covenant ratified by the majority of UN member states. The book meticulously extracts and analyzes the jurisprudence over nearly forty years of the UN Human Rights Committee, on each of the various ICCPR rights, including the right to life, the right to freedom from torture, the right of freedom of religion, the right of freedom of expression, and the right to privacy, as well as admissibility criteria under the First Optional Protocol. Key miscellaneous issues, such as reservations, derogations, and denunciations, are also thoroughly assessed. Comprehensively indexed and cross-referenced, this book offers elegant and straight-forward access to the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee and other UN human rights treaty bodies. Presented in a clear and illuminating manner, it will be of use to the judiciary, human rights practitioners, human rights activists, government institutions, academics, and students alike.

A new and an essential reference work for any international human rights law academic, student or practitioner, A Commentary on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights spans all substantive rights of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), approached from the perspective of the ICCPR as an integrated, coherent scheme of rights protection. In detailed coverage of the Human Rights Committee's output when monitoring ICCPR compliance, Paul M. Taylor offers extraordinary access to forty years of its Concluding Observations, Views and General Comments organised thematically. This Commentary is a solid and practical introduction to any and all of the civil and political rights in the ICCPR, and a rare resource explaining the requirements for domestic implementation of ICCPR standards. An indispensable research tool for any serious enquirer into the subject, the Commentary speaks to the accomplishments of the ICCPR in striving for universal human rights standards.

A collection of United Nations documents associated with the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these volumes facilitate research into the scope of, meaning of and intent behind the instrument's provisions. It permits an examination of the various drafts of what became the thirty articles of the Declaration, including one of the earliest documents – a compilation of human rights provisions from national constitutions, organised thematically. The documents are organised chronologically and thorough thematic indexing facilitates research into the origins of specific rights and norms. It is also annotated in order to provide information relating to names, places, events and concepts that might have been familiar in the late 1940s but are today more obscure.

Every state in the world has undertaken human rights obligations on the basis of UN treaties. Today's challenge is to enhance the effectiveness of procedures and institutions established to promote the accountability of governments. The six treaty bodies that monitor and evaluate state policies and practices play a vital role, but the whole system has been stretched almost to breaking point. It is under-funded, many governments fail to report or do so very late or superficially, there is a growing backlog of individual complaints, broad reservations have been lodged by many states, and the expertise of committee members has been questioned. This volume contains detailed analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the system, written by leading participants in the work of the treaty bodies. Their recommendations provide a blueprint for far-reaching reform of a system of major importance for the future of international efforts to protect human rights.

As part of a larger research project on harmonisation and convergence among UN human rights treaty bodies, scrutinises convergence and divergence, communality, and related issues. Focuses on five Committees: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), the Human Rights Committee (HRC), the International Covenant on Economics, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).