Reservations to Treaties and Norms of Jus Cogens - a Comment on Human Rights General Comment No. 24

On 2 November 1994, the Human Rights Committee adopted General Comment No. 24 (52), which was clearly provoked by the great number of reservations deposited by States to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and its two Optional Protocols. In this decision, the Committee states its opinion on a variety of matters. All relate to the permissibility and effect of reservations. Among the issues addressed is the question of how to determine whether a reservation is compatible or not with the objects and purposes of the Covenant and the two Optional Protocols. The question is of great import; for — according to a recognised rule of international law laid down in Article 19 of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (Vienna Convention, VCLT), — when a State finds itself in the process of ratifying or acceding to the Covenant or to any of the two Protocols, it may only make such reservations as are compatible with that treaty’s object and purpose.