The Judicial Protection of Human Rights

Abstract

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948. This was a major step forward in the process of defining and establishing these rights. A International Bill of Rights then followed that was legally obligatory on all covenanting parties. The UN General Assembly addressed the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not legally binding and that the United Nations lacked the means to ensure its implementation by adopting two covenants for the observance of human rights in December 1965: the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Individual rights were established in the first covenant, and their implementation was mandated by law in the second. Following ratification by the necessary number of member states, these covenants entered into effect in December 1976. After the end of 1981, several states ratified the Covenants. Since India is a signatory to these Covenants, they have the force of law in the countries that have ratified them. After the international statement was made, it took India another 44 years to pass the Protection of Human Rights Act.