Does ICCPR Protect Human Rights?

According to state media reports in Egypt, 529 of Morsi’s supporters were sentenced to death in a single hearing by the Minya Criminal Court.

This is a ‘mass capital punishment’.

A question crossed my mind as I heard the news, will United Nations and Human Rights Committee be taking any action as the sentence violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) that has been signed by Egypt?

Article 6(1) and 6(2) of ICCPR:

1. Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.morsi

 

2. In countries which have not abolished the death penalty, sentence of death may be imposed only for the most serious crimes in accordance with the law in force at the time of the commission of the crime and not contrary to the provisions of the present Covenant and to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. This penalty can only be carried out pursuant to a final judgement rendered by a competent court.

Article 14 of the ICCPR, which outlines a fair trial, mandates that anyone accused of a crime must have “adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense” and “to be tried in his presence.”

Egypt signed the ICCPR on August 4, 1967 and ratified the treaty on January 14, 1982; but it did something worse than countries that have not sign the treaty.

So, what is the use of making countries sign and ratify ICCPR if a country that ratified ICCPR can pass a sentence of ‘mass capital punishment’ to 529 people?

 

What Is Universal Periodic Review

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a mechanism of the Human Rights Council (HRC) which is an intergovernmental body made up of 47 states, to review how far the members of the United Nations follow the Human Rights. (All About The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by SUHAKAM)

The UPR reviews all 192 United Nations (UN) Member States over a four-year cycle. The process consists of several steps. The review takes place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Objectives:

1. Improvement of human rights of the people.
2. How far does the state fulfil the obligations and commitments of human rights, assessment of positive development and problems that are faced by the States in fulfilling the obligations.
3. Enhance the State’s capacity and technical assistance, in consultation with, and with the consent of, the State concerned.
4. Sharing the best practice of human rights among States and other stakeholders.
5. Support for cooperation in promotion and protecting of human rights.
6. Encourage full cooperation and engagement with the HRC, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other human rights bodies.

Recommendations:

Recommendations are the final results of the UPR
process, and are included in the final report. Although the recommendations are
not binding, they act as a set of commitments by the State to improve the protection
and promotion of human rights in their country. These recommendations will
serve as benchmarks to the State, on what it must achieve until the next UPR
cycle.

Related articles:

• COMANGO And Human Rights (ahmadalijetplane.wordpress.com)
• United Nations Human Rights Council’s UPR(ahmadalikarim.wordpress.com)
• PPMM’s NGI Round Table Discussion On UPR Human Rights Council 2013

United Nations Human Rights Council’s UPR

UPR stands for Universal Periodic Review. It is a process to review how far all the countries that are members of the United Nations follow the demands made by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

This year, our country, Malaysia will be reviewed by UNHRC. I think Malaysia is a very peaceful and fair country where all minority races are not being discriminated by our government.

Must all the United Nations members agree to all of the UNHRC demands? I feel that not every country need to be the same as other countries and follows the same universal rules because every country and its citizen is unique and has different needs and values.

For example, Malaysia is an Islamic country while Roman Catholicism is the official religion of Monaco and Argentina. So, they are all different and each country has different social values and ways of live.

So, is it fair if we want all the countries in this world to follow a set of universal rules and values agreed by other countries whose needs and values are different? I think that not only it is wrong, in fact, it is against the human rights to force a country to accept any value or rule which is not suitable for the local people of the country, against their social values, religions or can cause lots of problems to the country. And it is not right to force a country to agree on something that is actually against their Constitutions and rules of laws.

UPR stands for Universal Periodic Review. It is a process to review how far all the countries that are members of the United Nations follow the demands made by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

This year, our country, Malaysia will be reviewed by UNHRC. I think Malaysia is a very peaceful and fair country where all minority races are not being discriminated by our government.

Must all the United Nations members agree to all of the UNHRC demands? I feel that not every country need to be the same as other countries and follows the same universal rules because every country and its citizen is unique and has different needs and values.

For example, Malaysia is an Islamic country while Roman Catholicism is the official religion of Monaco and Argentina. So, they are all different and each country has different social values and ways of live.

So, is it fair if we want all the countries in this world to follow a set of universal rules and values agreed by other countries whose needs and values are different? I think that not only it is wrong, in fact, it is against the human rights to force a country to accept any value or rule which is not suitable for the local people of the country, against their social values, religions or can cause lots of problems to the country. And it is not right to force a country to agree on something that is actually against their Constitutions and rules of laws.