U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary"Since the publication of the first edition of the CCPR Commentary in 1993 a considerable increase of States parties to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and to its first Optional Protocol (OP) took place, as at 1 Jan. 1993: CCPR 114 ratifications; OP 66 ratifications 1 Jan. 2004: CCPR 151 ratifications; OP 104 ratifications.With more than 100 States parties, the individual communications system under the first OP to the CCPR provides human beings in more than half of all States in all regions of the world with a right to complain against human rights violations in their own countries to an international expert body which hands down quasi-judicial decisions on the admissibility and merits of such claims.The second edition covers the practice and jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee between 1977 and the end of 2003. During these 27 years, this expert body has examined 330 State reports, adopted 31 General Comments and rendered decisions on more than 1,200 individual cases, of which almost half have been decided on the merits. All relevant texts, tables and decisions have been updated to 1 May 2004."-- |