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UN Rights Committee Completes Session of Compliance

The United Nations panel of experts that monitors the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights today wrapped up its eighty-sixth session, after examining compliance reports submitted by Norway, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China.

The countries that presented their reports for the consideration of the 18-member Human Rights Committee, which opened its New York session on 13 March, are among the 156 States parties to the Covenant, which was adopted in 1966 by the General Assembly.

The Covenant affirms that all peoples have the right to self-determination as well as the right to life, liberty and security of person. It prohibits torture, cruel or degrading treatment or punishment, and the arbitrary deprivation of life. The Covenant also provides, among other protections, for freedom of movement, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and freedom of expression.

Under the Covenant's Optional Protocol, 105 States parties recognize the Committee's competence to consider confidential communications from individuals claiming to be victims of violations of rights proclaimed under the treaty. Fifty-seven States parties have ratified or acceded to the Covenant's Second Optional Protocol, which aims to abolish the death penalty.

In the session completed today, the Committee also considered the situation of civil and political rights in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, in the absence of a report, and had read through its draft "general comment" on article 14 of the treaty, which deals with the right of equality before courts and tribunals and to a fair trial.

In her closing remarks, Chairperson Christine Chanet, an expert from France, said that the Committee had also considered 37 individual complaints. She said that, although the Committee and the Covenant enjoyed a growing profile on the international scene, experts must work together with the press and others to make the tenets of the Covenant better known.

The Committee, which traditionally holds three sessions per year, will meet next in July at the UN Office at Geneva, to consider reports of the United States, the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo and other matters.

Source: United Nations News Centre

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