Seeking Remedies for Torture Victims: A Handbook on the Individual Complaints Procedures of the UN Tready Bodies The obligations outlined above therefore create a global interest and standing against acts of torture and other forms of ill-treatment and those who perpetrate them, ensuring a united front against torture. It is against this background that the individual complaints mechanisms of the treaty bodies create a powerful tool for international enforcement of this universally recognized right in situations where domestic law and/or domestic courts have failed to give it effect. 1.2 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The ICCPR was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966, and came into force in 1976. As of 1 October 2013, it had 167 States parties, representing well over three quarters of recognized States in the world. The ICCPR is an international treaty, and therefore it imposes legally binding obligations on States parties. The ICCPR makes up a part of what is known as the International Bill of Rights. The International Bill of Rights comprises the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR) 1948, the ICCPR and its Protocols, as well as the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) 1966. The UDHR was adopted by the United Nations in 1948 in the wake of the Second World War. Whereas “human rights” had largely been thought of as “internal” State matters prior to the Second World War, which were not subject to international scrutiny or jurisdiction, the horrors of that conflict awoke the world to the fundamental nature of human rights, and the need to recognize and protect these rights at the international level. The UDHR was not, however, legally binding at the time of its creation in 1948.24 Over the next eighteen years, the provisions of that declaration were translated into legally binding treaty form in the two International Covenants, both adopted in 1966. The ICCPR recognizes and protects “civil and political” rights. It is reproduced in full at Appendix 1. The substantive rights are listed in Part I25 and Part III of the treaty. Such rights include fundamental rights such as freedom from slavery and freedom of speech. Article 7 prohibits torture, and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Article 10 supplements Article 7, and provides for humane treatment for a particularly vulnerable group, detainees. Breaches of Article 7 24 25 30 It is arguable that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights now represents customary international law binding on all States: see, e.g., Sohn, L. B., “The New International Law: Protection of the Rights of Individuals rather than States”, 32 American University Law Review 1 (1982), p. 17. Part I contains only Article 1, which recognizes the right of self-determination. This Article is exceptional as it attaches to peoples rather than individuals. It is also the only right which is contained in both Covenants.