I United Nations
| Date | 01 December 1990 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934419000800406 |
| Published date | 01 December 1990 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
Human
Rights
News
PART B: HUMAN RIGHTS NEWS
IUNITED NATIONS·
A
Human
Rights Committee
Geneva,
9to 27
July
1990
During
the
39th session held in Geneva from 9 to 27 July 1990 the
Human
Rights Committee adopted one general comment in accordance with
Article 40(4) of the International Covenant on Civil
and
Political Rights as
well as a total of 8 final views and 7 inadmissibility decisions under the
Optional Protocol thereto (for the 37th and 38th sessions see 8
NQHR
2
at p. 176).
General Comment 19(39) relates to the
protection
of
the family
under
Article 23 of the Covenant. The Committee noted the existence of diverse
concepts of the family in different States and the obligation of States to
give protection to those group units which are legally regarded as a family.
Unmarried
couples with children
are
explicitly referred to as an example
of a family. Since Article 23(1) also guarantees protection by society, the
Committee stressed the duty of States to encourage or support protective
measures by social institutions. With respect to the right to marry the
Committee concluded
that
civil marriage should in all cases be provided for
in the legislation of each State. Since
the
right to found a family implies the
possibility to procreate the Committee emphasized
that
family planning
policies should preclude forced sterilization, forced abortion
and
criminali-
zation of any failure to restrict
the
number of children to an authorized
maximum. Similarly,
the
possibility to live together implies the obligation
to provide for the reunification of families, particularly in the case of
migrant workers and refugees. With respect to the equality
of
spouses in
Article 23(4)
the
Committee stressed, inter
alia,
the right of married women
to retain
the
use of their family name.
In 5
of
the
8
decisions
on the merits of individual communications the
Committee found violations of the Covenant. Most important is the case
of
Delgado
v.
Colombia (No. 195/1985) in which the Committee for the first
time established aviolation of the
right
to
security
of
person
in Article 9(1)
•Manfred Nowak
403
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