HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONTINUES TO DISCUSS DRAFT GENERAL COMMENT ON THE RIGHT TO LIFE

The Human Rights Committee this morning continued to discuss a draft General Comment on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to life.

At the beginning of the meeting, Committee Rapporteur on the draft General Comment, Yuval Shany, said that they would continue to collect comments on paragraph 14 and further paragraphs today. A number of comments had already been made and they would be considered.

Paragraph 14 highlights the incompatibility with the right to life of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear weapons.

Committee Experts commented on the need to mention the right to compensation to victims of weapons of mass destruction; suggested adding language about why they were concerned about weapons of mass destruction because they were indiscriminate and could destroy human life on a massive scale; and recommended specifying chemical, biological and radiological weapons, in addition to nuclear weapons. One Expert thought that adding all that would make the paragraph too detailed and lengthy.

Mr. Shany said it was clear that the Committee wished to strengthen this paragraph to some extent, but there was no consensus on whether or not they wanted to elaborate different weaponry. They had enough material and would circulate new language on this paragraph this afternoon.

Sir Nigel Rodley, Committee Rapporteur on the draft General Comment, said they would do their best to come up with a text of paragraph 14 that tried to take in as much as possible.

On paragraph 15, Mr. Shany said it referred to less lethal weapons, because if used in certain ways, these weapons could be lethal, like Tasers and rubber covered metal bullets. The paragraph specified that they should be used only on an exceptional basis and by persons who had been trained on them.

Committee Experts asked why refer to them as less lethal, rather than non-lethal. Mr. Shany said that the history was that they used to be called non-lethal, and then non-governmental organizations (NGOs) had said that they could kill people, so the more current literature in NGO vernacular referred to them as less lethal. Committee Experts again referred to remedies, and Mr. Shany said it would be difficult to introduce the concept of remedy in every paragraph. Sir Nigel said there was an overlap between paragraphs 15 and 19 and maybe they could be put together.

The Chair said they had thus concluded the discussion under the first section under chapter one. They would now hear an introduction on chapter two, dealing with arbitrary deprivation of life, then start considering it paragraph by paragraph.

Mr. Shany said there were two concepts in article six paragraph one, one on arbitrary deprivation of life and the other on the duty of protection of life. Paragraph 16 stated that the right to life was supreme, but not absolute in nature. Paragraph 17 dealt with the interplay between the obligation to protect by law the right to life and the obligation not to be arbitrarily deprived of life. Paragraph 18 dealt with legality and arbitrariness and the interplay between the definition of arbitrariness and protection by law. Paragraph 19 dealt with the duty of law enforcement forces and precautionary obligations not to carry out anything that could result in arbitrary deprivation of life and to undergo necessary training. Paragraph 20 dealt with exceptions to the right to life, including the death penalty. Paragraph 21 dealt with the interplay between arbitrariness and aggravated forms of arbitrary deprivation of life. Paragraph 22 dealt with specific issues dealing with persons with disabilities and what could be done to protect them from arbitrary deprivation of life.

Sir Nigel noted that the two fundamental notions in paragraph 18 were necessity and proportionality; if it was necessary to use force, this should be minimum, and proportionality meant that lethal force should only be used to protect life.

Committee members made suggestions on paragraphs 16 to 19.

The Committee will next meet in public on Thursday, 7 July at 10 a.m., to continue to discuss the draft General Comment on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to life.