United Nations Human Rights Committee: Recent Cases

The commentary below analyses five of the most important recent decisions of the Human Rights Committee (HRC), the monitoring body established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), in complaints submitted pursuant to the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR. The decisions concern the ICCPR compatibility of laws that restrict access to abortion, a ban on the wearing of religious clothing in public universities, compulsory religious education, a requirement that recipients of unemployment benefit undertake some work in return for receipt of the full benefits, and a ban on the publication of poll results in the weeks preceding an election.