The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966. It entered into force on 23 March 1976 following ratification/accession of the thirty-fifth state party. The Convention’s monitoring body, the Human Rights Committee (HRC) was established by the Covenant and first met in 1977.
The Covenant ensures the protection of civil and political rights. The rights enshrined include the right of peoples to self-determination, the right to life, freedom from torture and from slavery, freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention, the right to a fair trial, freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression and association, the right to political participation and equality before the law.
There are two optional protocols to the Covenant. A State party that ratifies the First Optional Protocol recognizes the competence of the Human Rights Committee “to receive and consider communications from individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation by that State Party of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant.”
State parties that ratify the Second Optional Protocol commit to the abolition of the death penalty.