¹ This power may exist in the treaty itself or, more usually, in the rules of procedure. See, eg, Rule 108(1) of the revised Rules of Procedure of the UN Committee Against Torture which permits the Committee to ‘transmit to the State party concerned, for its urgent consideration, a request that it take such interim measures as the Committee considers necessary to avoid irreparable damage to the victim or victims of alleged violations’, UN Doc. CAT/C/3/Rev 4, 38. In Europe Rule 39(1) of the Rules of the European Court of Human Rights allows the Chamber or its President to ‘indicate to the parties any interim measure which it considers should be adopted in the interests of the parties or of the proper conduct of the proceedings before it’, available at <www.echr.coe.int/ENG/Edocs/RulesofCourt2002.htm>..>Google ScholarSee also, Merrills, jg and Robertson, AHHuman Rights in Europe (4th edn ManchesterMUP 2001) 317–18.Google ScholarUnder the American Convention on Human Rights, reproduced in (1970) 9 ILM 673, Art 63(2) authorizes the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, in ‘cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable damage to persons’, to ‘adopt such provisional measures as it deems pertinent’. The Court may also ‘act at the request of the Commission’ with respect to a case not yet submitted to it. See also, Art 25 of the Court's revised Rules of Procedure, available at <wwwl.umn.edu/humanrts/oasinstr/iachrregulations.html>. In addition, Art 25(1) of the revised Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights permits the Commission, to request provisional, or precautionary, measures in ‘serious and urgent cases, and whenever necessary...to prevent irreparable harm to persons’, available at <wwwl.umn.edu/humanrts/oasinstr/iachrregulations.html>..+In+addition,+Art+25(1)+of+the+revised+Rules+of+Procedure+of+the+Inter-American+Commission+on+Human+Rights+permits+the+Commission,+to+request+provisional,+or+precautionary,+measures+in+‘serious+and+urgent+cases,+and+whenever+necessary...to+prevent+irreparable+harm+to+persons’,+available+at+.>Google ScholarSee generally, Pasqualucci, JThe Practice and Procedure of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CambridgeCUP 2003), ch 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholarauthorized under Rule 111 to indicate interim measures to ‘avoid irreparable damage being caused to the victim’, or where ‘desirable in the interest of the parties or the proper conduct of the proceedings before it’, Commission's Rules of Procedure (revised), (1997) 18 Human Rights Law lournal 154, at 161–3. The African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights is empowered under the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Establishment of an African Court of Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted by the O AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government at its 34th ordinary session in Ouagadougou in 1998, reproduced in (2000) 12 African Journal of International and Comparative Law 187, to indicate provisional measures. Thus, Art 27(2) reads, ‘In cases of extreme gravity and urgency, and when necessary to avoid irreparable harm to persons, the Court shall adopt such provisional measures as it deems necessary.’Google ScholarSee further, Naldi, GJ ‘Interim Measures of Protection in the African System for the Protection of Human and Peoples' Rights’ (2002) 2 African Human Rights Law Journal 1.Google Scholar

² Communication No 869/1999, UN Doc CCPR/C/70/D/869/1999 (19 Oct 2000); available at <http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/undocs/869/1999.html>>Google Scholar

³ 999 UNTS 171; (1967) 6 ILM 383.Google Scholar

⁴ The procedure has been described as ‘quasi-judicial’, RKM Smith Textbook on International Human Rights (OxfordOUP 2003) 67.Google Scholar

⁵ As at 10 Oct 2003, 147 States were parties to the Covenant, of which 104 had ratified the Optional Protocol. Information on the status of these treaties may be found on the following UN web sites, <http://untreaty.un.org>, and <http://www.unhchr.ch>.,+and+.>Google Scholar

⁶ Optional Protocol, Arts 2, 3, and 5(2). See McGoldrick, DThe Human Rights Committee (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 134–1, 160–98.Google Scholar

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⁸ The Committee has therefore adopted the position that, ‘Bearing in mind that, by becoming a party to the Optional Protocol, the State party has recognized the competence of the Committee to determine whether there has been a violation of the Covenant or not and that, pursuant to article 2 of the Covenant, the State party has undertaken to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the Covenant and to provide an effective and enforceable remedy in case a violation has been established, the Committee wishes to receive from the State party, within 90 days, information about the measures taken to give effect to the Committee's Views’, UN GAOR A/55/40, vol I, para 593. Furthermore, in 1990 the Committeeestablished a procedure to monitor the follow-up to its Views by creating the mandate of Special apporteur for the follow-up on Views, UN GAOR A/45/40, Annex XI.Google Scholar

⁹ Revised Rules of Procedure of the Committee, UN GAOR A/56/40, Vol I, B.Google Scholar

¹⁰ This practice was adopted by the Committee at its 35th session in 1989. At its 55th session in 1995 the Committee decided that the Special Rapporteur would retain this competence until the Working Group on Communications took up the question of admissibility, UN GAOR A/52/40, vol I, para 467.Google Scholar

¹¹ Above, n 8, para 565.Google Scholar

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¹³ But see Weiss v Austria Communication No 1086/2002, UN Doc CCPR/C/77/Da/1086/2002 (15 May 2003) discussed below. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has stated that ‘the nature of provisional measures is not only preventive in the sense that they preserve a juridical situation, but fundamentally protective, because they protect human rights’, Provisional Measures in the La Nation Newspaper case, Order of 7 Sept 2001, Annual Report of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2001, vol II, Appendix XXXVI, para 4.Google Scholar

¹⁴ The Committee has found that disagreeable consequences do not constitute ‘irreparable damage’ under rule 86, Canepa v Canada, Communication No 558/1993, UN Doc CCPR/C/D/558/1993 (1994), para 7.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Above, n 8, ibid

¹⁶ McGoldrick, op cit, 202;Google ScholarSmith, op cit, 68;Google ScholarRobertson, AH and Merrills, JGHuman Rights in the World (4th edn ManchesterMUP 1996), 57, who describe them as having ‘a moral force’.Google Scholar

¹⁷ See the statement by Mr Martin Scheinin, above n 12, para 3.Google Scholar

¹⁸ All sentences of death are automatically reviewed by the Supreme Court. The power of the President of the Republic to, inter alia, pardon or grant clemency is based on s 19, Art VII of the Constitution. See the second report of the Philippines submitted to the HRC, UN Doc CCPR/C/PHL/2002/2, para 511.Google Scholar

¹⁹ At para 5.1. Emphasis added.Google Scholar

²⁰ At para 5.2. Emphasis added.Google Scholar

²¹ At para 5.3.Google Scholar

²² At para 5.4.Google Scholar

²³ Para 8.Google Scholar

²⁴ The Committee has considered that the object and purpose of the Optional Protocol is to ‘allow the rights obligatory for a State under the Covenant to be tested before the Committee’, General Comment No 24, UN Doc HRI/GEN/1/Rev 5, para 13.Google Scholar

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²⁶ Cf, eg, Provisional Measures in the Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center et al case, Order of 30 Nov 2001, Annual Report of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2001, vol II, Appendix XLVI.Google Scholar

²⁷ Mansaraj et al v Sierra Leone, Gborie et al v Sierra Leone, and Sesay et al v Sierra Leone, Communications Nos 839/1998, 840/1998 and 842/1998, UN GAOR A/56/40, vol II, annex X, sect M (16 July 2001).Google Scholar

²⁸ Glen Ashby v Trinidad and Tobago, Communication No 580/1994, UN GAOR A/57/40, vol II, annex IX, sect. A (21 Mar 2002).Google Scholar

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³⁰ UN Doc CCPR/C/64/D/839-–841/1998.Google Scholar

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³³ Communication No 964/2001. The Committee adopted a similar stance in relation to Uzbekistan, which had executed six individuals whose communications were pending before the Committee, UN GAOR A/58/40, vol I, para 141.Google Scholar

³⁴ UN GAOR A/56/40, vol I, para 130.Google Scholar

³⁵ Communication No 1086/2002, UN Doc CCPR/C/77/D/1086/2002 (15 May 2003).Google Scholar

³⁶ Para 5.3.Google Scholar

³⁷ Para 7.1.Google Scholar

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ See Rule 111, above n 1.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Communication Nos 137/94, 139/94, 154/96, and 161/97 (2000) 7 International Human Rights Reports 274. See further, Naldi op cit, 6–8.Google Scholar

⁴¹ At paras 113–14.Google Scholar

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⁴⁴ See above n 1.Google Scholar

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⁴⁷ AA Cancado Trindade, Preface, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Provisional Measures-Compendium: July 2000-June 2001, Series E, No 3, paras 13, 15.Google Scholar

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⁵¹ At paras 10, 12. Note further that in Loayza Tamayo v Peru the Inter-American Court found that the State ‘has the obligation to make every effort to apply the recommendations’ of the Commission, Ser C, No 33 (1997), para 79. This appears to reverse the Inter-American Court's prior stance that ‘recommendations’ do ‘not have the character of an obligatory judicial decision for which failure to comply would generate State responsibility … the State does not incur international responsibility by not complying with a recommendation which is not obligatory’, Caballero Delgado and Santana case, Ser C, No 22 (1995), para 67.Google Scholar

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⁵⁴ Judgment of 6 Feb 2003, available at <http://www.echr.coe.int/ENG/Judgments.htm>..>Google Scholar

⁵⁵ See above n 1.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ At para 110. Emphasis added.Google Scholar

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⁵⁹ Series A, No 201 (1991).Google Scholar

⁶⁰ UN GAOR A/58/44, Chapter V, B, para 162. It should be observed that the original rule of procedure was applied in this case; Art 108(9) stated, inter alia, that the Committee ‘may request the State party to take steps to avoid a possible irreparable damage to the person or persons who claim to be victim(s) of the alleged violation’, UN Doc HRI/GEN/3, 171. On the Committee Against Torture's current authority to request interim measures see above n 1.Google Scholar

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⁶⁶ Thereby addressing the concerns of those who view the Committee as somewhat ineffectual, see, eg, Steiner, HJ ‘Individual claims in a world of massive violations: What role for the Human Rights Committee?’, in Alston, P and Crawford, J (eds) The Future of UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring (CambridgeCUP 2000) 15;Google ScholarRobertson, GCrimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice (2nd edn LondonPenguin 2002) 52–8. Both the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights have emphasized the importance of the principle of effectiveness (effet utile) in this regard, see Mamatkulov and Abdurasulovic v Turkey, para 109; Colotenango v Guatemala, para 5.Google Scholar

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⁶⁸ Mamatkulov and Abdurasulovic v Turkey, para 105.Google Scholar

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