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The United Nations Human Rights Treaties

Reservations, Declarations, Objections and Derogations

Information in this section of Bayefsky.com is as of 29 February 2012. To update, use the UN website database here. (Go to the respective treaty and scroll down after the list of ratifications.)

Information in this section of Bayefsky.com is as of 29 February 2012. To update for individual treaties use the UN website search engine by clicking on the links provided below for each treaty and, once on the UN page, scrolling past the ratifications to the reservations section.

All information in this section of Bayefsky.com is from the United Nations, Multilateral Treaties Deposited with the Secretary-General. The material is organized into the same categories used in the source document. The placement of footnotes in various sections of Bayefsky.com corresponds to the placement of footnotes in the source document.

The source document contains multiple cross-references to other sections of the publication and other documents. In bayefsky.com the text of information that is the subject of cross-referencing in the source document is reproduced in [square brackets] in place of the cross reference. Where the text of material introduced because of a cross-reference in the source document is from outside Chapter IV (the human rights chapter of the source document) it is both in [square brackets] and italics.

This section includes several types of information:

Reservations and declarations entered by a state (both current states parties and states which have subsequently withdrawn their ratifications)

When a state party either signs or ratifies a treaty, that state may enter reservations or declarations regarding provisions of the treaty. The text of these reservations and declarations are listed under the heading "Reservations and Declarations".

The nomenclature of "reservation" or "declaration" is taken directly from the source document.

The footnotes under this heading contain a wide range of information.

  1. A state may decide to withdraw a reservation at any time. The footnotes contain information on the withdrawal of reservations, including the text of the withdrawn reservations.
  2. A state may be a successor state to a previous state party. In this case information regarding succession may appear in the footnotes.
  3. In the case of CERD, CEDAW, CAT, and CRC information regarding territorial application may appear in the footnotes.
  4. Some objections are also found in footnotes to the section on reservations and declarations. These objections have been left in the footnotes in order to mirror the source document. These objections include
    1. objections made to ratifications
    2. objections made to reservations and declarations which have been withdrawn
    3. in some cases objections made to current reservations and declarations, and
    4. in some cases objections made to the territorial application of the treaty.
Objections:

Any state party may object to the reservations or declarations entered by another state party. These objections are included in two different ways:

  1. under the name of the objecting state party (under the heading "Objections made to other States Parties Reservations and Declarations") and
  2. under the name of the targeted state party (under the heading "Objections made to State Party's Reservations and Declarations").

Note that the text of objections, usually in the case of reservations and declarations which have been withdrawn, may also appear in the footnotes under the section "Reservations and Declarations".

Declarations made under

a.  CERD, article 14
b.  CCPR, article 41
c.  CESCR Optional Protocol, articles 10 and 11
d.  CEDAW Optional Protocol, article 10 (concerning articles 8 and 9)
e.  CAT, articles 28 (concerning article 20), 21 and 22
f.   CAT Optional Protocol, article 24 (concenring parts III and IV)
g.   CRC Optional Protocol on Communications, articles 12 and 13
h.  CMW, articles 76 and 77 (not yet in force)
i.  CED, articles 31 and 32 and article 42

Where a State party has made the declaration under these specific articles, there is a section which provides the text of the declaration.

Derogations (Notifications under article 4(3) of the CCPR)

Under article 4 of the CCPR, states parties must provide notification of any derogations to the rights set out in the CCPR. The text of any such derogations are given in this section.

Territorial Application

Information regarding the application of the treaties to dependant territories of a state party may be listed here, including any disputes as to territorial application. Information on territorial application may also appear in the footnotes to the section "Reservations and Declarations".