Abstract: In the human rights discourse, the relations between human rights and human responsibilities and the limitations on human rights have long been disputed. In the context of human rights, an individual enjoys human rights on the sole basis of being a human, without necessarily undertaking any obligations as a precondition to his/her enjoyment of human rights, or satisfying any prerequisites in order to acquire human rights. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) only imposes obligations on the States parties to respect and guarantee the rights of individuals, without stipulating any obligations of individuals. The individual’s duties and responsibilities to other individuals and to the community referred to in ICCPR are merely of ethical or moral instead of legal nature. ICCPR has the effect of prohibiting individuals from infringing upon human rights of other individuals by providing that States are obliged to ensure that the rights under the Convention are protected against impairment by any parties. ICCPR permits States to limit some individual rights, but only for the purpose of protecting the rights of other individuals, not because that these limitations are the obligations to be undertaken by individuals prior to his/her enjoyment or exercise of rights.

Keywords: individual obligations, individual responsibilities, limitations on human rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

Author: Sun Shiyan, Deputy Director of CASS Center for Human Rights Studies; and a research fellow and the head of the International Human Rights Law Department of CASS Institute of International Law.

Source: 2 (2021) Chinese Journal of Human Rights pp.49-64.