IV. How Human Rights Work: General Application A. “Practical and Effective” 1. Human rights standards are intended to guarantee not rights that are theoretical or illusory, but rights which are ‘practical and effective’.73 As far as international tribunals are concerned, merely asserting the existence of rights is not sufficient to satisfy this test of ‘practical and effective’. 2. Rights have to be genuinely accessible. Therefore in a key case concerning access to court involving a particularly unpleasant divorce, the unavailability of legal aid for a women with no ability to pay for legal advice, meant that in reality she had no access to court, even though in theory such a right existed.74 3. This obligation to ensure the practicality and effectiveness of rights is directly linked to the right to an effective remedy and the rule of law. B. The nature of civil and political rights 4. Civil and political rights can be categorised into different types:    Absolute rights permit no qualification or interference under any circumstances. These are dealt with below.75 Limited rights which can be limited within the constraints spelt out in the Article itself. Qualified rights which are intended to be balanced either between the individual on the one hand and the community on the other, or between two competing rights. Limiting rights 5. The right to liberty, is a good example of a limited right.76 The right is asserted in the first paragraph of the relevant treaty Article, but then it goes on to state that there may be limits to it, and it spells those limits out. For example, the right to liberty can be taken away from an individual following conviction by a competent court. 6. The right to a fair trial77 is absolute to the extent that the trial taken as a whole must be fair; however, there are certain specific and implied limits that have been read into it. This principle is endorsed by the ICCPR’s Human Rights Committee, which in General Comment No.31, CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add/13 (2004), affirms that the ICCPR be ’accessible, effective and enforceable’. 74 European Court, Airey v Ireland, 9 October 1979. 75 See section V.B. below. 76 See section VIII below. 77 Article 6, ECHR. 73 33