International Covenant on Civil

and Political Rights

28^th Meeting (AM)

STATES PARTIES TO CIVIL, POLITICAL RIGHTS COVENANT

ELECT NEW MEMBER TO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

The twenty-second meeting of States parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights this morning elected, by acclamation, Franco Depasquale (Malta) as a member of the Human Rights Committee, to replace Patrick Vella (Malta) for the remainder of his term ending on 31 December 2004.

Luis Gallegos Chiriboga (Ecuador) was earlier elected to chair the meeting, with Crispin Grey-Johnson (Gambia), Pierre Helg (Switzerland) and Juraj Priputen (Slovakia) acting as vice-chairpersons.

The Covenant was adopted by the General Assembly in December 1966 and came into force on 23 March 1976.  With 149 States parties, it deals with such rights as freedom of movement; equality before the law; the right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of opinion and expression; and freedom of association.  The Human Rights Committee, composed of 18 independent human rights experts, was established to monitor the implementation of the Covenant and its two Optional Protocols in the territory of States parties.  The first Protocol allows individuals the right to petition the Committee, and the second aims at abolition of the death penalty.  States parties submit periodic reports to the Committee, which meets three times a year in Geneva.

Opening the meeting on behalf of the Secretary-General, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, Director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that since the twenty-first meeting of States parties to the Covenant last September, the Human Rights Committee had held one session, from 21 October to 8 November 2002. The Committee adopted concluding observations on three country reports and 13 final decisions under the Optional Protocol.

On 24 October 2002, he added, the Committee held its second meeting with States parties to the Covenant.  That meeting was attended by representatives of over 60 States parties and covered a broad range of issues, which included a thorough discussion on the Committee’s new procedure for dealing with the situation of the States parties that had not reported under the Covenant, and on the newly established procedure for follow-up on the Committee’s concluding observations on the periodic reports.

28^th Meeting (AM)

The Committee had also continued its deliberations on the draft of a revised general comment on article 2 of the Covenant, he added.  And finally, it had started consultation on the proposals on treaty body reform contained in the Secretary-General’s report on strengthening of the United Nations.  Those consultations would be continued at the Committee’s forthcoming session in March this year.

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