International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) contains important guarantees for the protection of civil and political rights. It was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16 December 1966. Switzerland acceded to the Covenant on 18 June 1992.
The ICCPR guarantees traditional civil rights and liberties. Together with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), it sets out a binding framework for the rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
The ICCPR includes the following
- The right to life and the prohibition of torture
- The prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, etc.
- The prohibition of slavery and forced labour
- Procedural rights
- Freedom of thought, religion, association and assembly
- Political rights
The ICCPR was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16 December 1966 and came into force on 23 March 1976. Switzerland acceded to the Covenant on 18 June 1992. It entered into force in the country on 18 September 1992.
Review mechanism
The UN's Human Rights Committee is the body that reviews states parties' compliance with their obligations under the ICCPR. As a rule, states parties are required to submit a country report every four years detailing the measures they have taken to implement the rights and freedoms set out in the Covenant (Art. 40 ICCPR).
To date Switzerland has submitted four reports on its implementation of the ICCPR, most recently in 2015.
The Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) is in charge of Switzerland's country reports on the ICCPR.
Interstate complaints procedure
The ICCPR also includes an optional interstate complaints procedure whereby states parties can recognise the competence of the Human Rights Committee to receive state party complaints. The procedure allows them to submit a communication to the Committee alleging that another state party is not fulfilling its obligations under the ICCPR.
Optional protocols
The ICCPR has two optional protocols:
The second optional protocol was ratified by Switzerland on 16 June 1994, where it came into force on 16 September 1994. Switzerland has not ratified the first optional protocol.
Index
Links
- Message of 30 January 1991 concerning Switzerland's accession to the two international human rights covenants of 1966 and an amendment to the Federal Law on the Administration of Justice (de, fr, it)
- Message of 3 February 1993 on the accession of Switzerland to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty (de, fr, it)