Reservations to international human rights treaties

the need to review existing models

Abstract

Building upon the foundation laid by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a body of international human rights treaties has been developed, thereby strengthening and specializing the promotion of these rights. Concurrently, the emergence of new and additional implementation mechanisms necessitates improvements to the frameworks that facilitate their realization—a need highlighted by issues such as the widespread use of treaty reservations. This article employs a dialectical approach to examine one of the ambiguous mechanisms within the context of the universalization of human rights: reservations to international treaties on the subject. While the use of reservations to international treaties is subject to limits defined by international law—specifically, that they cannot operate in contradiction to a treaty's core objectives—the practice suffers from a lack of adequate monitoring and control. By analyzing reservations to the Convention on the Rights of the Child as a case study, the article explores the complexities of the issue, identifying inherent contradictions and paradoxes, and noting that, in certain instances, the mechanism may—or may not—function effectively.