HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE CONCLUDES FIRST READING OF DRAFT GENERAL COMMENT ON THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

The Human Rights Committee this afternoon concluded its first reading, begun in October 2009, of a draft General Comment on States parties' obligations under Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, setting out the rights to hold an opinion without interference and to freedom of expression.

Michael O'Flaherty, the Committee Expert serving as rapporteur for the draft General Comment, said the assessment of compatibility business related to the Committee's conception of matters under the Optional Protocol and how it dealt with matters that the Committee considered thereunder. A problem was whether the Committee went down the route of article 19 or 20 with regard to “memory laws”. Limitations should never be imposed on the right to freedom of opinion - with regard to freedom of expression, this should never go beyond what was permitted by the Convention and what may be required by the circumstances included therein.

The Committee reviewed the document on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis, beginning from paragraph 50, which was where it had ended during its discussion on Wednesday, 20 October, reviewing sections on restrictions and "memory laws", and the relationship of articles 19 and 20 of the Covenant.

Experts commented on and proposed changes to the draft General Comment, saying there was a real use and abuse of so-called “memory laws”, and it was always a problem to legislate historical truth, which was what these laws did. In some contexts, it had to be understood that words meant more than what they were said to mean. Others urged the need to be careful with regard to this issue, as it was a modern and contemporary question on the interpretation of history. “Memory laws” could not affect freedom of expression in any way, but this meant that the Committee would have to take a radical position, an Expert said, pointing out that the Committee had to be aware it was taking that step. A rule of jurisprudence was not a customary rule, an Expert said. It was not enough for legislative prohibition to be enshrined in customary, traditional or religious law - it needed to be enshrined in legislative law, an Expert said. The Committee had to send a message that it was not blind to levels of disgraceful speech that were out there in society.

The Committee publishes its interpretation of the content of human rights provisions, known as General Comments, on thematic issues or its methods of work. To date, it has issued 33 General Comments. The General Comments of all human rights treaty bodies are compiled annually and the latest version can be found under the following link: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/comments.htm.

The Committee will next meet in public at 10 a.m. on Friday 29 October, when it will commemorate the anniversary of the 100th session of the Committee and release its concluding observations and recommendations on the country reports which it has reviewed before concluding the session.


For use of information media; not an official record

CT10/024E