STATES PARTIES TO CONVENANT ON CIVIL, POLITICAL RIGHTS ELECT LOUIS HENKIN OF UNITED STATES TO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

Press Release
HR/4431

STATES PARTIES TO CONVENANT ON CIVIL, POLITICAL RIGHTS ELECT LOUIS HENKIN OF UNITED STATES TO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

Louis Henkin (United States) was unanimously elected to the Human Rights Committee, as the States parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights held their nineteenth meeting this morning. The election was held to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of Thomas Buergenthal, (United States).

The States parties also elected four Vice-Chairpersons nominated by the Groups of Western European and Other States, the Latin American and Caribbean States, the Eastern European States and the Asian States. They are: Filippi Balestra (San Marino); Christina Aguilar (Dominican Republic); Gocha Lordkipanidze (Georgia); and Demetris Hadjirgyrou (Cyprus).

Also this morning, the States parties elected Semakula Kiwanuka (Uganda) as Chairman of the meeting. He was proposed by the representative of Mongolia.

In his opening statement, Bacre Ndiaye, head of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said that since the last meeting, on 10 September 1998, an additional three States had become parties to the Covenant, bringing the total number to 144. The new States parties were Burkina Faso, Liechtenstein and South Africa. Tajikistan, which the Human Rights Committee had already considered a State party by virtue of succession, had also made a formal accession.

Burkina Faso, Liechtenstein and Tajikistan had become parties to the Optional Protocol, bringing the number of States parties to 95, he said. As of today, the Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, had 38 parties, five more than last year. They were Azerbaijan, Belgium, Georgia, Liechtenstein and Slovakia. Also, since the eighteenth meeting, two more States – Liechtenstein and South Africa had made the declaration envisaged under article 41, paragraph 1 of the Covenant, bringing the total to 47.

He said that the increase in adherence to those and other United Nations human rights treaties reflected a growing consensus in the world about the importance of human rights, and the need to further

Meeting of States Parties - 2 - Press Release HR/4431 On Civil and Political Rights 13 September 1999 Nineteenth Meeting (AM)

strengthen and extend the observance of international legal norms. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was committed to the universal ratification of those instruments at the earliest possible date.

During the last year, he said, the Committee had examined initial and periodic reports of 16 States parties, finished the consideration of a general comment on freedom of movement (article 9), and started consideration of draft general comments in gender equality (article 3) and derogations under the Covenant (article 4). The Committee also continued to create distinguished jurisprudence under the Optional Protocol to the Covenant, which was quoted by national and international courts and tribunals, and which was being studied at universities around the world.

The representative of the Dominican Republic, withdrawing her country’s candidate for the vacant Committee seat, said that her delegation did not wish to break with the tradition of replacing a succeeding Committee member with a national of the same country. However, the Dominican Republic would like to be considered for future elections.

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