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42 DePaul L. Rev. 1169 (1992-1993)
Reflections on the Ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by the United States Senate

handle is hein.journals/deplr42 and id is 1181 raw text is: REFLECTIONS ON THE RATIFICATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS BY THE UNITED STATES SENATE M. Cherif Bassiouni* Since the inception of the United Nations, the United States has been a world leader in the development of human rights norms. Its influence in this field has been unparalleled by any other country.1 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,2 the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),a and the Interna- tional Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,4 now rat- ified by the United States, incorporate U.S. constitutional ap- proaches and terminology. These three major instruments have come to be known as the International Bill of Rights, a term rem- iniscent of the U.S. Bill of Rights.' However, notwithstanding the * Professor of Law, President, DePaul International Human Rights Law Institute; President, International Association of Penal Law; President, International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences. 1. HAROLD BLAUSTEIN, THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION ABROAD (1986); CONSTITUTIONALISM AND RIGHTS: THE INFLUENCE OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION ABROAD 383-403 (Louis Henkin & Albert J. Rosenthal eds., 1990); Richard B. Lillich & Hurst Hannum, Linkages Between International Human Rights and U.S. Constitutional Law. 79 AM. J. INT'L L. 158 (1985); Richard B. Lillich, The United States Constitution and International Human Rights Law, 3 HARV. HUM. RTS. J. 53, 59-61 (1990) (noting the importance of exposing law students to international human rights law). 2. G.A. Res. 217A, U.N. GAOR, 3d Sess., Supp. No. I, at 135, U.N. Doc. A/810 (1948). 3. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, opened for signature Dec. 19, 1966, 999 U.N.T.S. 171, (entered into force Mar. 23, 1976, adopted by the United States Sept. 8, 1992). 4. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, opened for signature Dec. 19, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3 (entered into force Jan. 3, 1976). 5. RICHARD B. LILLICH. INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS: PROBLEMS OF LAW, POLICY AND PRACTICE 175-76 (1991). International Bill of Rights is also the commonly used general title in specialized United Nations publications for these three instruments. See Louis Henkin, Rights: American and Human, 79 COLUM. L. REV. 405, 415 (1979) (Most of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and later the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, are in their essence American constitutional rights projected around the world.); Anthony Lester, The Over- seas Trade in the American Bill of Rights, 88 COLUM. L. REV. 537, 539 (1988) (discussing the influence the American Bill of Rights had on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.). It should also be noted that American constitutionalism, as Professor Henkin describes it, has influ- enced other multilateral conventions, particularly the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Nov. 4, 1950, 213 U.N.T.S. 221, and the American Conven- 1169

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