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The expansion of the United Nations human rights system is a much-followed phenomenon by both human rights practitioners and State governments as the implications of an increasingly global regime affect aspects of State sovereignty in the context of domestic oversight of these rights. During the past forty years resort to human rights treaty bodies for review of alleged State violations of individuals’ rights under the various UN human rights treaties has steadily increased. No treaty body has played a larger role in the development of the international regime than the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Defining Civil and Political Rights: The Jurisprudence of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, 2nd Edition, by Alex Conte and Richard Burchill, is an essential tome for any human rights practitioner on both the international and domestic level. Breaking down each treaty-ensured right addressed by the Human Rights Committee, the authors manage to track the Committee’s jurisprudence without presupposing any of its future opinions. The rights-based chapters also make it an effective learning tool for students of advanced human rights study.

As indicated by the title, the book focuses on the evolution of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC or the Committee) and the development of its jurisprudence as the individual complaints review mechanism for violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR or the Covenant). A brief introduction to the history of both the UN human rights system and the specific institution of the HRC sets the opening stage for what proves to be a decidedly thorough examination of civil and political rights and illuminates what these rights have come to mean in the domestic context for State parties to the ICCPR.

Limiting the narrative to the “views” and General Comments, the authors explore the meaning of the individual rights and freedoms set forth in Parts I and II of the ICCPR. One of the key, reader-friendly aspects of this work is that while acknowledging that HRC decisions are very much done on a case-by-case basis, it manages to preoccupy itself less with the State-specific circumstances of the communications, instead focusing on the development of each right enshrined in the ICCPR even in light of the fact that the HRC has repeatedly stressed the importance of evaluating each communication on its own facts.

For anyone embarking on advanced study of international human rights law and, more specifically, the treaty body system, Chapters 1 and 2 provide both a concise and illustrative history of the HRC as a treaty obligation review mechanism and of its procedural modus operandi. Reflecting on the jurisprudence of the Committee, Conte, in Chapter 2, examines the elasticity of certain procedural restrictions, such as exhaustion of remedies, and notes the struggle of enforcement which almost always follows an issuance of final views. The elastic aspect of HRC procedures appears to have often been somewhat of an Achilles heel in the Committee’s campaign for legitimacy and the book does not attempt to excuse the Committee’s history on this topic. The chapter also briefly addresses other non-admissibility related procedural nuances of the Committee including the less-than-perfectly complied with “follow-up” procedures instituted in the early 1990s.

Inherent in the nature of human rights law is a “level of flexibility” which Conte appropriately notes at the outset of Chapter 3, “Limitations to and Derogations from Covenant Rights”. He acknowledges that this flexibility is necessary when balancing conflicting rights in the pursuit of democratic objectives, especially in the context of limiting non-derogable rights under Article 4. Using the principles of margin of appreciation, limitations prescribed by law, necessity and proportionality, and non-discrimination, which are recognised on various levels by both the European Court of Human Rights and the HRC, Conte illustrates the delicate balance between protecting non-derogable rights and recognising certain limitations on those rights. Furthermore, he explores the plain language of the articles and demonstrates the flexibility intrinsic in the use of such words as ‘fair’, ‘reasonable’ and ‘arbitrary’ which is necessary for States when they are interpreting Covenant rights. This examination is useful to anyone looking for guidance on the nuanced relationship between protection of individual rights and the needs of States and is also applicable when analysing other human rights convention obligations.

Chapter 4 initiates the right-specific discussion with “Democratic and Civil Rights”. Though the entire ICCPR technically deals with rights falling into these categories, the chapter focuses on nine provisions encompassing the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, as well as recognition before the law and electoral rights, among several others. Navigating through a healthy number of HRC cases, Conte addresses each of the associated rights including several, such as non-discrimination and self-determination, which are addressed more thoroughly in later chapters.

“Security of the Person”, the focal point of Chapter 5, presents an in-depth review of those rights embodied in ICCPR Articles 6 through 10. These include several absolute rights, such as freedom from torture or degrading treatment or punishment and the prohibition against slavery, in addition to the right to life, freedom from medical treatment or experimentation without consent and liberty rights. Conte conveys the Committee’s long-held mantra that deprivation of liberty must be pursuant to the law and notes the progression of the Committee’s aggressiveness in this area which has obviously tracked increasingly alarming domestic anti-terrorism agendas. The analysis also interestingly extends to the highly controversial use of force and nuclear weapons and their relationship to security of individuals, both of which the Committee has directly addressed in General Comments.