Details
- Comprehensively updated new edition on arguably the most important human rights convention in the world
- Exhaustively systematises and analyses the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee
- Contains a detailed commentary on the Covenant, including extensive extracts from both the instrument and cases dealing with its implementation
- Clearly structured and meticulously indexed for optimal usefulness to practitioners and students
New to this edition
- Fully updated to include new material on recent developments in the UN Human Rights Committee's case law
- Analysis of the significant new jurisprudential developments, including abortion, prisoners' voting rights, disappearances, and freedom of information
- New section devoted to the relationship of the ICCPR to other areas of international law
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.
Readership: Scholars and students of international human rights law; judges and human rights practitioners; human rights activists
Part I: Introduction
1: Introduction
Part II: Admissibility Under the ICCPR
2: The Ratione Temporis Rule
3: The 'Victim' Requirement
4: Territorial and Jurisdictional Limits
5: Consideration Under Another International Procedure
6: Exhaustion of Domestic Remedies
Part III: Civil and Political Rights
7: The Right of Self-determination - Article 1
8: The Right to Life - Article 6
9: Freedom from Torture and Rights to Humane Treatment - Articles 7 and 10
10: Miscellaneous Rights - Articles 8, 11, 16
11: Freedom from Arbitrary Detention - Article 9
12: Freedom of Movement - Article 12
13: Procedural Rights Against Expulsion - Article 13
14: Right to a Fair Trial - Article 14
15: Prohibition of Retroactive Criminal Laws - Article 15
16: Right to Privacy - Article 17
17: Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion - Article 18
18: Freedom of Expression - Articles 19 and 20
19: Freedoms of Assembly and Association - Articles 21 and 22
20: Protection of the Family - Article 23
21: Protection of Children - Article 24
22: Rights of Political Participation - Article 25
23: Rights of Non-Discrimination - Articles 2(1), 3, and 26
24: Minority Rights - Article 27
Part IV: Alteration of ICCPR Duties
25: Reservations, Denunciations, Succession, and Derogations
Appendices
A: International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
B: First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR
C: Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR
D: States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
E: States Parties to the First Optional Protocol
F: States Parties to the Second Optional Protocol
G: States which have made a Declaration under Article 41 of the Covenant
H: Members of the Human Rights Committee (Past and Present)
I: General Comments of the Human Rights Committee
Sarah Joseph is Professor of Human Rights Law and Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University in Melbourne. She has numerous publications on human rights, in areas such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, corporations and human rights, terrorism and human rights, self-determination, and now global trade and human rights. She is also an expert on Australian constitutional law, having co-written a leading text on that issue. She has taught human rights in many settings, both international and local, for over 15 years.
Melissa Castan is a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director for the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Her teaching and research interests are Constitutional Law, Indigenous Legal Issues and Legal Education. She is co-author, with Professor Sarah Joseph, of Federal Constitutional Law: A Contemporary View (2006).
Review(s) from previous edition
"'a seminal work which will be of enormous interest to the human rights community...' - Commonwealth Lawyer
""... a very useful first stop in finding the basic jurisprudence on the protection of civil and political rights under the treaties adopted under the auspices of the United Nations.'"" - Urfan Khaliq, Tolley's Communications Law
"... the publication makes a most creditable contribution to systematising and making accessible the work of the Human Rights Committee in the exercise of its various functions ... With its timely collation of the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, it stands alone in the human rights literature." - Australian Year Book of International Law
""The book, all 985 pages of it, is an excellent source of reference. No other work has encompassed as much material and case law so far...the wide range of sources is impressive...Of great value is the subject index... this index is exceptionally good, detailed and clear...the compilation of such incredible amounts of material is a gigantic achievement. The inclusion of good-quality indexes and information tables makes the information readily available and is one of the major assets of the work...The volume is a most-needed and welcome contribution for scholars and practitioners alike. It fulfils its aim of bestowing the legal community with an excellent source of information on international human rights law and will certainly aid in the advancement of human rights protection."" - Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht (Heidelberg Journal of International Law)
"The authors are to be congratulated for their thoughtful and insightful analysis, and for their meticulous work in continuing to render the work of the Human Rights Committee accessible to a wide audience of civil servants, scholars, practitioners, and activists." - Australian Year Book of International Law
