A Commentary on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The UN Human Rights Committee's Monitoring of ICCPR Rights

A new and an essential reference work for any international human rights law academic, student or practitioner, A Commentary on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights spans all substantive rights of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), approached from the perspective of the ICCPR as an integrated, coherent scheme of rights protection. In detailed coverage of the Human Rights Committee's output when monitoring ICCPR compliance, Paul M. Taylor offers extraordinary access to forty years of its Concluding Observations, Views and General Comments organised thematically. This Commentary is a solid and practical introduction to any and all of the civil and political rights in the ICCPR, and a rare resource explaining the requirements for domestic implementation of ICCPR standards. An indispensable research tool for any serious enquirer into the subject, the Commentary speaks to the accomplishments of the ICCPR in striving for universal human rights standards.

1. Self determination; 2. To 'respect and to ensure' covenant rights; 3. The equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of Covenant rights; 4. Derogation in times of officially proclaimed public emergency threatening the life of the nation; 5. Bar on interpreting the Covenant in abuse of rights; 6. The right to life; 7. Torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; 8. Slavery, servitude and forced or compulsory labour; 9. Liberty and security; 10. Treatment of those deprived of their liberty; 11. Imprisonment for inability to fulfil a contractual obligation; 12. Freedom of movement of the person; 13. Procedural safeguards in the expulsion of aliens; 14. Fair trial rights; 15. Retroactive criminal law; 16. Recognition as a person before the law; 17. Privacy, home, correspondence; 18. Honour and reputation; 19. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion; 20. Freedom of expression; 21. Propaganda for war and hate speech; 22. Freedom of assembly; 23. Freedom of association; 24. Protection for the family; 25. Protection required for children; 26. Right to participate in public affairs, electoral rights and access to public service; 27. Equality before the law, equal protection of the law; 28. Ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.

Paul M. Taylor is a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Queensland's TC Beirne School of Law and Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University's Centre for International and Public Law. His principal academic interests are international human rights law, conflict of laws and competition law. Other significant books he has authored include UK and EC Competition Law and Compliance (1999); and Freedom of Religion: UN and European Human Rights Law and Practice (2005).