General Comment No. 24 on Issues relating to Reservations made upon Ratification or Accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in relation to Declarations under Article 41 of the Covenant

Abstract

Human rights — Treaties — Reservations — International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — Criteria for determining validity of reservations entered under Covenant — Whether general international law rules governing validity of reservations inapplicable in certain circumstances because of special nature of human rights treaties

Treaties — Reservations — Human rights treaties — Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969 — Object and purpose test — Validity of reservations entered under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966 — Validity to be determined by reference to object and purpose of Covenant — Organ to determine the compatibility of reservations to treaty — Whether general rules of international law governing State's capacity to object to treaty reservation inapplicable in respect of human rights treaties — Whether United Nations Human Rights Committee alone having the capacity to determine compatibility of a reservation to Covenant