States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

these rights. Derogation involves possible suspension of all
the rights recognised by the treaty, except obviously the nonderogable
rights, during a state of emergency, subject to the
restraints set out in the derogation clause.
3. International
 accountability: Limitations on rights are
undertaken by ordinary processes of law and are generally the
domestic concern of States. Engaging the right of derogation
requires notiLication of the proclamation of a state of
emergency to the UN and other States Parties, including the
speciLic rights being derogated from, reasons for derogation,
and other circumstantial information.
Two further critical points must be mentioned. First, it has already
been mentioned parenthetically in relation to General Comment
No. 29 of the Human Rights Committee, that even rights that are
susceptible to derogation under the ICCPR may in effect be nonderogable
if they have become peremptory norms of international
law. This presupposes a further and extra‐textual limit on the right
of derogation of States that have acceded to the ICCPR. 224 Second,
is the contention that some principles of the ICCPR derogation
clause may have become, or are in the process of becoming,
general principles of customary international law. 225 The
consequence of this is that even States that have not acceded to
the ICCPR will have their right of derogation limited and regulated
by customary international law. As Sri Lanka is a signatory to the
ICCPR, (which incidentally does not allow withdrawals or
denunciations once acceded to) our position is made clearer, and
therefore the focus will be directly on Article 4 ICCPR, which states
as follows:
224
See Section 4.3.4, infra
225
Ibid
140