States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

cogens. 247 As Oraá observes, “These four rights constitute what has
been called the ‘irreducible core’ of human rights.” 248
In addition to this ‘irreducible core’ (as well as the other rights
entrenched in Article 4 (2) as non‐derogable), however, an
important matter to bear in mind is that certain other rights and
principles of the ICCPR are by implication also held to be nonderogable.
According to Oraá, these are (a) the provisions related
to the exercise of non‐derogable rights (i.e., the right to an
effective remedy and the prohibition on discrimination); (b) the
provisions which contain general exceptions; and (c) the
provisions related to the machinery of implementation (i.e., the
inter‐state complaints procedure, the individual complaints
procedure, and the reporting procedure). 249
In General Comment No. 29, the Human Rights Committee has
added to and elaborated on those rights and principles that it
would treat as non‐derogable by recourse to general international
law and other international human rights treaties:
“The enumeration of non‐derogable provisions in article 4
is related to, but not identical with, the question whether
certain human rights obligations bear the nature of
peremptory norms of international law. The proclamation
of certain provisions of the Covenant as being of a nonderogable
nature, in article 4, paragraph 2, is to be seen
partly as recognition of the peremptory nature of some
fundamental rights ensured in treaty form in the
247
Oraá: p.96 et seq; Questiaux (1982), op cit., p.19; General Comment No.
29, para.11
248
Oraá: p.96
249
Oraá: p.102
155