Civil and political rights are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Civil and political rights include such rights as the right to equality before the law, the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, movement, assembly and association, and the right to take part in the government of one’s country. A number of international human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), express these rights in a binding form.
In order to monitor States parties’ compliance with the ICCPR, the UN Human Rights Committee was established to oversee the implementation of the ICCPR in the states parties to the ICCPR. All states parties are required to submit regular reports to the Committee on the implementation of the relevant rights. A state must report initially one year after becoming a party to the Covenant, and then whenever the Committee requests (usually every four years). The Committee examines each report and presents its views and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”.
In addition to the report consideration process, article 41 of the Covenant provides for the Committee to consider inter-State complaints. Moreover, the First Optional Protocol to the Covenant empowers the Committee to examine individual complaints concerning alleged violations of the Covenant by States parties to the Protocol. The Committee’s competence extends to the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, which applies to States that have accepted that Protocol. The Committee meets in Geneva or New York and generally meets three times a year.
Civil rights include protection from unlawful discrimination.
HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, disability, age, religion and sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity) by certain health care providers and service organizations:
- State and local social security and health care agencies,
- hospitals,
- clinics,
- nursing homes,
- insurers who participate in Maketplaces and receive premium tax credits, and
- other organizations that receive federal financial assistance from HHS.
Under these laws, all persons in the United States are entitled to receive health care and social services on a nondiscriminatory basis. For example, you cannot be denied services or benefits just because of your race, color, national origin, or disability.
