Draft General Comment on the Right to Life reaches next phase

Stakeholders submit remarks on the Committee’s draft General Comment on the right to life

Draft general comment No. 36

The Human Rights Committee finalised its first reading of the draft General Comment on article 6 of the Covenant. It invited all interested stakeholders to comment on the Committee’s Draft, including Member States, other UN and regional human rights mechanisms, UN organisations or specialised agencies, National Human Rights Institutions, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), research institutions, and academics.

The Committee received 171 written comments in total. 20 of those were from member states. Australia, Austria, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Malta, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States of America all provided the Committee with remarks on its draft.

6 replies came from UN Organizations, specialized agencies and experts. 33 documents were written by academia and other professionals. 3 national institutions provided comments. 109 NGOs submitted written remarks, including ACLU, Columbia Law School Human Rights Clinic, ICJ, the Open Society Justice Initiative and Rights Watch, Advocates for Human Rights, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, FIACAT, Amnesty International, Center for Reproductive Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and Ipas, Human Rights Watch, International Assocation of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and others, International Commission of Jurists, International Disability Alliance, International Lesbian, Gay, Trans and Intersex Association and others. 

"The comments will be considered by the Human Rights Committee during the next session. "

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