The Observance of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by the Soviet Union
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AO-A093 577 DEPARTM4ENT OF STATE WASHINGTON DC OFFICE OF EXTERNAL--ETC F/S 5/14 POLITICAL RIGHTS BY--ETCfUI 17A-A 1- 7 THE OBSERVANCE OF THE COVENANT ON CIVIL AND IUNCLASSIFIED FAR-3013 NL UflMENEMffllf INSTITUTE ON SOC& T LAW V VALERY CHALIDZE N JHE OBSERVANCE OF THE COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS BY THE SOVIET UNION. Chief Consultant- Leon Lipson Consultants: Alexander Volpin I Konstantin Simis co George Ginsburgs Translation of the basic text: George Ginsburgs Collection of examples: Ludmilla Alexeyeva Pavel Litvinov This paper is written to order of the U.S. State Department I 'Lij New York, 1980 I 6'v Was p si fr~D epar~ter! of S~ i DIMUU'RIBTI NST ENT A f4rnea nerem ccu: nc, be .!-erpre!,-j 3z rev ,nt~ Approved for pu-Uc relea ;.;CY :" > "er e <- 9, i,•"-" THE OBSERVANCE OF THE COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS BY THE SOVIET UNION Table of Contents Page Introduction 1 Article 1. The Right of Self-Determination 9 Article 2. The Duty of States Party to the Covenant to 25 Respect and Ensure Human Rights Article 3. The Right of Men and Women to Equal Enjoyment 39 of all Civil and Political Rights Set Forth in the Covenant Article 4. The Right of States Party to the Present 41 Covenant to Take Measures Derogating from their obligations under the Present Covenant Article 5. Protection from Curtailment of any of the Rights 43 and Freedoms Recognized in the Present Covenant Article 6. Protection of the Right to Life 44 Article 7. Freedom from Torture and Cruel, Inhuman and 49 Degrading Treatment or Punishment Article 8. Freedom from Slavery 58 Article 9. Freedom from Arbitrary Arrest or Detention 64 Article 10. The Right to Humane Treatment and Respect for 67 the Dignity of Persons Deprived of Liberty Article 11. Freedom from Imprisonment on Grounds of Non- 69 fulfillment of Contractual Obligations Article 12. Freedom of Movement 70 Article 13. Expulsion of Aliens Lawfully in the Territory 85 of a State Party to the Present Covenant Article 14. The Right of All Persons to Equal Treatment 86 before the Courts and Tribunals Article 15. Punishability of Criminal Offenses 98 Article 16. The Right to Recognition Everywhere as a Person 100 before the Law -2 Contents cont. Article 17. The Right of Persons to Freedom from Arbitrary 101 or Unlawful Interference with their Privacy, Family, Home or Correspondence Article 18. The Right to Freedom of Thought, Conscience 109 and Religion Article 19. The Right to Hold Opinions without Inter- 124 ference Article 20. Prohibition of Propaganda for War and Advocacy 145 of National, Racial or Religious Hatred Article 21. The Right of Peaceful Assembly 146 Article 22. The Right to Freedom of Association with 148 Others, Including the Right to Form and Join Trade Unions Article 23. The Equality of Rights and Responsibilities 153 of Spouses as to Marriage, During Marriage and its Dissolution Article 24. Protection of the Right of Children 155 Article 25. The Right of Persons to Participate in Civic 156 Affairs Article 26. The Right of Persons to Equal Protection of 158 the Law Article 27. The Rights of Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic 159 Minorities TA t it; n Aal:111ty CoMgs- A r ...... LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CC - Central Committee CC - Criminal Code CCE - A Chronicle of Current Events 1 CCP - Code of Criminal Procedure CEC - Central Executive Committee CHR - A Chronicle of Human Rights in the USSR 3 CLCC -A Chronicle of the Lithuanian Catholic Church CPC -Council of People's Commissars CPSU -Communist Party of the Soviet Union 4 DKhG -Dokumeny Khelsinskoi Gruppy (Documents of the Helsinki Group) FCL -Fundamentals of Civil Legislation FCLL -Fundamentals of Corrective Labor Legislation FCP -Fundamentals of Civil Procedure MGU -Moskovskij gosudarstvennyj universitet (Moscow State University) I4VD -Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del (Ministry of Internal Affairs) SP - Sbornik postanovlenij SZ -Sbornik zakonov WVS - Vedomosti Verkhovnogo Soveta SSSR 1A Samizdat information magazine published in Russian by 2Zhronika Press and in English by Amnesty International. 2 A quarterly coinriled by the Khronika Press editorial Board and published by Khronika Press in both English and :1ussian. 3A Lithuanian Samrizdat magazine. Published in English by the Lithuanian .C Priests' !,oaguc oi kAerica. selected issues wecre publiihed in :1ussian by Khronika Press in lej79. Issued 1-5, 7Throni1Ca Press. Published in English by the Cornission on security and cooperation in Europe. INTRODUCTION Nature of Research In discussing the question of how human rights are observed in some country, it is important to agree first on the level at which the discussion is being conducted. In any country, no matter how strong the government's inclination in favor of defense of human rights, individuals' rights are violated and, apparently, will be violated bothby private persons and state employees, and that is why conclusions concerning observance of human rights will vary depending on the level at which the problem is discussed. Without claiming to draw a complete picture, let me note four possible levels of such discussion: 1. Violation of human rights by private persons through criminal infringement of the rights of individuals or as a A consequence of conflict situations not connected with criminal infringement, including conflict situations arising from the fact that a sizable portion of the population subscribes to views on the rights of the person contrary to those guarantees of subjective rights that are recognized by modern civilization. 2. Violation of human rights or impossibility of defense of human rights resulting from a low state of legal consciousness or a low state of competence among the state employees responsible for the defense of rights. -2- 3. Violation of human rights resulting from the striving of some group fighting to attain power, or to retain the power it already has. An example of this can be the case where the ruling group resorts to systematic violation of human rights as part of state policy in order to reduce the prospects of this group's losing power in the future. 4. Violation of human rights resulting from the fact that the majority of the population, or particular social groups, or the ruling group follows a specific ideological system, if this ideolo- gical system dictates its principles in the sphere of social, economic or legal relations. With respect to the question of effectuating the Covenant on civil and political rights*,all four listed levels are important for the discussion. However, in the present research I shall limit myself to examining the question on the third and fourth of the designated levels on grounds that discussion on the first and second would require very elaborate sociological research and such dis- cussion would not always be related to the responsibility of the government for the violation of rights. By contrast, my tasks comprise in the main the discussion of legal problems connected with the place of the Covenant in Soviet law, the confirmation of the norms of the Covenant in Soviet legislation and the correspondence of Soviet legal practice in general to the norms of the Covenant. *Hereafter referred to as Covenant -3- In my discussion, I will proceed from the principle of goodwill, in the sense that an assertion that-some norm of the Covenant is on the whole effectuated in the Soviet Union will not be required to produce iron-clad evidence on the point and will be accepted on faith insofar as there are no substantive reasons to doubt the claim. On the other hand, assertions concerning violations of the Covenant or inadequate effectuation of the norms of the Covenant will rely on citation of: a. laws (zakony) and official acts of state institutions;* b. court decisions and other documents from legal practice, and official publications; c. concrete eye-witness accounts by third parties or existence of systematic testimony by interested parties; d. the fact of existence of such testimony without its concrete analysis. In that connection, citations of type 1 or 2 will count as evidence of violations of the Covenant or inadequate effectuation of the norms of the Covenant; citations of type 3 or 4 will count as serious grounds for recommending further investigation of the question. An important source of information concerning observance of the Covenant is official Soviet statements, including statements in *Following the precedent of Soviet legal literature, I frequently treat as laws (zakonodatel'stvo) also the edicts of the Presidiumns of the Supreme Soviets confirmed by law. This is traditional, though formally inaccurate. -- - -; .. -4- the United Nations and the report of the USSR representative in the Committee on human rights, along with the replies of the Soviet representative to the questions by members of the Committee (108th, 109th and 112th session of the Committee on Human Rights).* The principle of goodwill, mentioned above, does not, however, preclude remembering that official Soviet statements can be used one-sidedly -- only as evidence of the brilliant implementation of the covenants by the Soviet Union, provided, of course, that one does not resort to careful analysis of the ommissions in these statements.** In general, one should remember that, in contrast with many areas of social life regarding which Soviet official figures are sometimes compelled to recognize the existence of phenomyna which for decades had been known as temporary shortcomings, Soviet official statements concerning the effectuation of fundamental civil and political human rights in the USSR unreservedly dwell, as a rule, only on the successes. * UN Documents CCPR/C/1/ADD. 22(January 31, 1978; CCPR/C/SR. 108, 109, 112) (October 26-28, 1978). Here the discussion concerns the Soviet Union as a whole, and the statements and reports of the union republics are not discussed.