C C P R
UNITED
NATIONS
______________________________________________________________
International Covenant
on Civil and
Political Rights
Distr.
GENERAL
CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.5
26 April 1994
Original: ENGLISH
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE
GENERAL COMMENT ADOPTED BY THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE
UNDER ARTICLE 40, PARAGRAPH 4, OF THE INTERNATIONAL
COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
Addendum
General comment No. 23(50) (art. 27) */
1. Article 27 of the Covenant provides that, in those States in
which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons
belonging to these minorities shall not be denied the right, in
community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their
own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use
their own language. The Committee observes that this article
establishes and recognizes a right which is conferred on
individuals belonging to minority groups and which is distinct
from, and additional to, all the other rights which, as
individuals in common with everyone else, they are already
entitled to enjoy under the Covenant.
2.
In some communications submitted to the Committee under the
Optional Protocol, the right protected under article 27 has been
confused with the right of peoples to self-determination
proclaimed in article 1 of the Covenant. Further, in reports
submitted by States parties under article 40 of the Covenant, the
obligations placed upon States parties under article 27 have
sometimes been confused with their duty under article 2(1) to
ensure the enjoyment of the rights guaranteed under the Covenant
without discrimination and also with equality before the law and
equal protection of the law under article 26.
__________
*/ Adopted by the Committee at its 1314th meeting (fiftieth
session) on 6 April 1994
GE.94-16261
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