RIGHT TO LIFE: EVOLUTION OF A UNIVERSAL INTERNATIONAL STANDARD


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Abstract

This article examined the content of the international legal standard for ensuring and protecting the right to life, the implementation of which should be guided by the states parties to the international Covenant on civil and political rights in 1966. Based on the General Comments of the UN Human Rights Committee adopted under article 6 of the Covenant, the author attempts to trace the evolutionary development of the universal standard of the right to life due to the social needs of the international community. The main content of the study is an analysis of the draft of the General Comment No. 36, in which the Committee, summarizing the international and domestic practice of member states, presented its views on the current content of the right to life, as well as the comments of states on the text of the proposed draft. Such controversial issues in the context of the right to life as the problem of death penalty, legalization of euthanasia and a number of others are considered. In conclusion, the author assesses the interpretation activities of the Human Rights Committee.

About the authors

M. F. Kosolapov

Department of International Law, Saratov State Law Academy

Author for correspondence.
Email: grigorjewa.katerina@yandex.ru
Russian Federation

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