The Anniversary of the International Covenants on Human Rights

Abstract

This article is devoted to the sixtieth anniversary of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as the components of the International Bill of Human Rights. The study examines the historical and legal development of the Bill from the human rights provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the adoption of the two Covenants and their Optional Protocols. Particular attention is paid to the institutional consequences of this process, including the establishment and functioning of the Human Rights Committee and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as treaty bodies entrusted with international control over the implementation of the Covenants. The article argues that the special status of the two Covenants requires their preservation as the normative core of the universal human rights system. The author critically assesses contemporary tendencies that may weaken this system, including the redistribution of institutional authority from ECOSOC to other UN human rights mechanisms, the expansion of special procedures, attempts to merge treaty bodies into a single supervisory mechanism, and proposals to include the draft Convention on the Right to Development in the International Bill of Human Rights. The article concludes that the International Bill of Human Rights must be protected from institutional dilution and normative substitution.