REPORTING TO THE UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS TREATY BODIES TRAINING GUIDE: Part I — Manual To comply with its human rights obligations, State parties are committed to implementing the provisions of the treaty at national level. This means adopting legislation and policies, and putting in place institutional settings and practices compliant with their treaty obligations and duties, thereby ensuring the enjoyment of the rights enshrined in the treaty by everyone under their jurisdiction. In addition, each State party is also under an obligation to submit periodic reports to the relevant Treaty Body (see Section 1.3) on how the measures adopted have contributed to effective implementation of the rights enshrined in the treaty. Reading the treaties as a whole To understand fully a State’s obligations under these treaties, it is necessary to read together all the human rights treaties to which a State has become a party. Even though the treaties are separate and free-standing they complement each other, with a number of principles binding them together. Each lays down basic principles such as non-discrimination and equality, effective protection against violations, special protection for the particularly vulnerable, and an understanding of the human being as an active and informed participant in the public life of the State where he or she is located and in decisions affecting him or her, rather than a passive object of the authorities’ decisions. All the treaties based on these common principles are interdependent, interrelated and mutually reinforcing, so that no right can be fully enjoyed in isolation, but depends on enjoyment of all the other rights. Moreover, the international human rights treaties to which a State is a party should be considered together with other national, international or regional human rights obligations undertaken by that State when evaluating its responsibility for protecting human rights. 3 TABLE 1 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS TREATIES AND THEIR OPTIONAL PROTOCOLS Date of adoption Date of entry into force Number of State parties3 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) • Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR-OP1) • Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty (ICCPR-OP2) 16 Dec 1966 16 Dec 1966 23 Mar 1976 23 Mar 1976 172 116 15 Dec 1989 11 Jul 1991 85 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) • Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR-OP) 16 Dec 1966 3 Jan 1976 169 10 Dec 2008 5 May 2013 23 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) 21 Dec 1965 4 Jan 1969 179 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) • Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (OP-CEDAW) 18 Dec 1979 3 Sept 1981 189 6 Oct 1999 22 Dec 2000 109 Treaties and their optional protocols 6 3 The data is valid as at 10 September 2018. Latest ratification information is available on: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/ TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx.