The Legal Nature of United Nation Human Rights Committee's General Comments

One of the reasons for the special importance of the HRC in the protection and promotion of human rights is due to the mission of this institution to adopt GCs. Despite the fact that the committee is competent to adopt GCs according to Art.40 (4) ICCPR, the legal status of these GCs is always the subject of debate. The GCS, which are an extract of all the knowledge, findings and experiences of the Committee during its mandates, have a legal status in the series of non-exclusive sources of international law, although they are not legally binding. They can be considered as secondary or complementary sources of international law. The main issue of this article was the placement of GCs in the normative hierarchy and sources of international law, their compliance due to their legal status, and subsequently the development and promotion of human rights through the lens of their ratification.