According to a World Health Organization fact sheet, “even before the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948 (at the time a non-legally binding document), broad agreement existed that the rights which were to be enshrined in the Declaration were to be transformed into legally binding obligations through the negotiation of one or more treaties. In 1966, two separate treaties, covering almost entirely all the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were adopted after approximately 20 years of negotiations: one for civil and political rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and one for economic, social and cultural rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).” Together, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the ICCPR and the ICESCR, are sometimes referred to as the International Bill of Human Rights.
In 1946, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights was established as a subsidiary body of the UN Economic and Social Council, “to weave the international legal fabric that protects our fundamental rights and freedoms,” in other words, to protect and promote our fundamental rights and freedoms.
The UN Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council (HRC) in 2006. The HRC was established by and reports to the UN General Assembly.
At its first session in 1947, the Commission established a drafting committee that prepared two documents: “a preliminary draft of a declaration or manifesto setting forth general principles of human rights; and a draft outlining a convention on those matters which the Committee felt could be formulated as binding obligations.” Efforts were concentrated initially on the draft declaration, leading to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by resolution of the General Assembly on 10 December 1948. However, in the same resolution, “the General Assembly requested the Economic and Social Council to ask the Commission on Human Rights to continue to give priority in its work to the preparation of a draft covenant on human rights and draft measures on its implementation.”
After an initial draft covenant on human rights was prepared by the Commission in 1950, the General Assembly asked the Commission to include articles specifically on economic, social and cultural rights, in addition to those concerning civil and political rights. In 1951, the Commission, assisted by representatives of the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the World Health Organization, completed a new draft – the Draft Covenant on Human Rights. After lengthy discussions, the General Assembly requested in February 1952 that there be two separate covenants, one on economic, social and cultural rights and the other on civil and political rights. This became necessary at the time because some states did not recognize economic social and cultural rights as human rights, while some other states did not recognize civil and political rights as human rights.
Preparation of the now two draft covenants continued until 1962, first by the Commission and then by the United Nations Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural matters). In December 1963, “the General Assembly invited all Governments to consider the text of the articles adopted by the Third Committee.” However, it was not until 1966 that the Third Committee completed the drafting of both covenants and submitted them to the General Assembly. The two covenants, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, along with an initial Optional Protocol to the latter, were adopted by the General Assembly on 16 December 1966. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted with a vote of 106 to 0 and its first Optional Protocol was adopted with a vote of 66 to 2 with 38 abstentions.
The Covenant entered into force on 23 March 1976, for all provisions except those of Article 41, following ratification/accession of the thirty-fifth state party. Article 41 allows a State Party to declare that it recognizes the competence of the Human Rights Committee “to receive and consider communications to the effect that a State Party claims that another State Party is not fulfilling its obligations” under the Covenant. However, the article also requires that at least 10 State parties make such a declaration before the article would come into effect. Article 41 did not come into force until 28 March 1979.
The first Optional Protocol to the Covenant also entered into force on 23 March 1976 following the ratification/accession of the tenth state party. The second Optional Protocol was adopted by the General Assembly with a vote of 59 to 26 with 28 abstentions and opened for signature on 15 December 1989. It entered into force on 11 July 1991 following the ratification/accession of the tenth state party.
The three instruments, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and their optional protocols enshrine global human rights standards and have been the inspiration for more than 50 supplemental United Nations human rights conventions, declarations and bodies of international minimum rules and other universally recognized principles. These additional standards have further refined international legal norms relating to a very wide range of issues, including women’s rights, protection against racial discrimination, protection of migrant workers, the rights of children, and many others.