The General Assembly decided today to vote formally in plenary session, Friday, on the texts of two international treaties which, when ratified, will legally require all states acceding to the documents to implement the rights and freedoms proclaimed by the United Nations 18 years ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Since both texts, as well as some supplementary documents, have already been adopted after debates lasting 12 years, by unanimous votes, in the Assembly’s Social Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, the action in the plenary session will certainly result in formal passage.
One of the two principal texts deals with economic, social and cultural rights, the other concerns civil and political rights. Both treaties — called Covenants — recognize the right of all peoples to self-determination and have provisions barring discrimination in the enjoyment and exercise of human rights. The Covenant of Civil and Political Rights guarantees specifically the preservation of the cultural, religious and linguistic heritage of minorities.
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