States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

inLluence. 222 The Committee has attempted to secure some follow
up through the designation of a Special Rapporteur for this
purpose, mandated, among other things, to conduct ongoing
dialogues with States Parties on compliance as well as making onsite
visits. These initiatives have, however, not produced any
dramatic results, and have also been hampered by a lack of
resources.
4.2.5
Conclusions
The ICCPR and the First Optional Protocol are salutary
instruments of an important segment of human rights, and indeed
for the establishment of some institutional arrangement for their
protection and enforcement. They are important, both for their
substance as well as their symbolism in terms of universal
commitment to certain basic values relating to human dignity.
While substantial impediments to their implementation, and the
realisation in tangible terms of the rights they espouse remain,
including major structural obstacles inherent to the international
legal system which continues to be dominated by the nation‐state
paradigm, it is to be observed that the global human rights
movement is on an upward trend. The receptivity of States to
these realities is reLlected in the increasing number of States
acceding to the Covenant and the Protocols.
222
Rehman (2002), op cit., p.92; S. Lewis‐Anthony, ‘Treaty‐Based
Procedures
for
Making
Human
Rights
Complaints
within
the
UN
System’ in
Hurst Hannum (Ed.) (1999) Guide
to
International
Human
Rights
Practice
(3 rd Ed.) (New York: Transnational Publishers): p.44 ; Steiner in
Alston & Crawford (2000), op cit.
137