The international protection of human rights and freedoms : recent efforts in Malta

Abstract

On 10th September 1990 the Government of Malta deposited instruments of ratification with the United Nations Secretary General for four multilateral treaties concerned with the international protection of human rights. These are: The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (hereafter referred to as Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Covenant); The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereafter referred to as International Covenant); The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereafter referred to as Optional Protocol), all three adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, and the Convention Against Torture. and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degra ding Treatment or Punishment (hereafter ref erred to as the UN Convention on Torture) adopted by the General Assembly in 1984. All four treaties serve one common purpose: the protection of fundamental human rights and liberties through international legal regulation. But each instrument engenders a separate series of obligations for States in international law and the effect of the implementation of these undertakings by Malta, as a State Party, on our laws will be varied and revolutionary. The present outline is offered as a succinct record of the principal features incorporated in these instruments and of the contribution made by these texts to the formation of an ever developing com prehensive regime concerning international human rights protection that will become operative under our law.