The ICJ has always stressed the vital importance of an independent judiciary to the proper functioning of the Rule of Law. It has given equal emphasis to the essential role which lawyers must be required to play in any system under the Rule of Law.
The purpose of the present handbook is to correlate, in a convenient form, these conclusions with each other and with the provisions of those great international instruments that lay down the accepted standards for the application of the Rule of Law and the protection of hum an rights: The Universal Declaration of Hum an Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, the European Social Charter, the Genocide Convention, the Hague and Geneva Conventions, the I.L.O. Conventions, and the Convention on Racial Discrimination.
- Part I is in effect a compendium of the conclusions of the congresses and conferences of the International Commission of Jurists. These are grouped, as far as possible, under the subject matter to which they relate.
- Part II provides a cross-reference index to the I.C.J. conclusions and to the provisions of the principal relevant
- international instruments in so far as they relate to human rights.
- In the Appendices will be found the text of the Universal Declaration and of the final statements of the I.C.J. congresses and conferences as well as a list of the principal international conventions referred to in Part II.
It is the hope of the Secretariat of the Commission that this handbook will assist lawyers in finding conveniently the standards that have been so carefully elaborated by the Commission over the years and the relevant international instruments.
principles and definitions of human rights-conference report-1966-eng (full text in English, PDF)
principles and definitions of human rights-conference report-1967-spa (full text in Spanish, PDF)