g., rada! discrimination, treatment ofprisoners or equality of women)
and would, after a while, become a specialist on the subject. The
Working Group might. be' also authorized to submit to the parent body
a draft recommendation for further action. The report of the Work.
ing Group and its recommendations would then
be
discussed in public
and the pressure of public opinion could be mobilized' to support the
proposed action. Once this possibilíty i5 at the disposal of the Worging
Group; the State concerned might he more willing .to discuss w;th
the Working Group ways and means of settling the matter and thus
avoid exposure to public scrutiny. In such a· case the Working Group
would mere1y report that case has been settled in conformity with the
relevant international human rights .instruments.
The procedure under the Covenant .en Civil and Politica! Rights
and its Optional Protocol is less likely to involve gross violatiollS of
human rights, and is prohably destined to deal primarily with the
difficulties caused by imperfect introduction. of international human
rights provisions into domestic legal system. As the European coun–
tries .have discov'ered, no legalsystem is flawless.and the right to como
plain to an international institution helps to remove the blemishes. The
changes which may be required by 'an international· decisión in such
a case are not like1y to interfere drastically with the ·domestic legal
system and the decision can beeasiJy, if sometimes reluctantly, obeyed.
Once it is shown that is the case, onecan hope that· the. Protocol
will
be
widely ratifiedand that it will not be necessary to devise some
substitute system for States which are not bound by the Protocol.
Should that, however, prove desirable it would not be too difficult
for the General Assembly to come up with anadequate system. AI–
ternatively, another optional protocol might be prepared allowing a
State to acc'ept the jurísdiction of the Human Rights Committee (or
of another appropriate body) with respect to other international ins–
truments to which it is a party and which do not themselves provide
fQr a system of handling communications re1ating to their violations.
3.
Condusions
The preceding survey shows thát important progress took place in
ihe last thirty years with respect to the protection of human rights,
both as far as ínternational legislation is concerned and in the more
diffkult field of imp!ementation.
..
While great strides have been made in relation to the development
and putting Jato, force of internatJonal ,legislative instruments, the
task Js not completed and there .are many areas in which new instru–
ments are in preparation
oc
need to be prepared. The machinery
foc
the purpose .is creaky and .
nee~s'
repairing. In particular,
the
Como
mission on Human Rights and the Third.Conunittee
oí
the. General
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