Quest For The Harmony: On the Vienna Reservations Regime and International Human Rights Treaties

Year 2019, Issue: 68, 47 - 68, 17.01.2020

Gülsüm Kaya

https://doi.org/10.26650/annales.2019.68.0004

Abstract

The reservation is one of the most important and controversial topics in international treaty law. The validity of reservations and their application came to the fore and customary reservation rules were reviewed with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in international law. Also, in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, rules on reservations were codified, which were asserted as the rules of customary international law. However, in human rights treaties, because of their distinctive characteristics, the rules of reservations needed to be applied and interpreted compatible to these particularities. First of all, human rights treaties are different from standard contractual treaties and they do not create a balanced system between the state parties’ rights and obligations. Therefore, the reciprocal effect of the reservation which gives equivalency to the parties’ rights and obligations cannot function properly in human rights treaties. The second aspect is the main ideal of ensuring the universality of human rights which challenges the integrity of these treaties. The choice between integrity and universality gives us a hint about the status of the treaties regarding reservations. Another issue is the compliance of a reservation with the object and purpose of the treaty which is rated among the main rules about validity of a reservation in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. In human rights treaties, a reservation’s compatibility with the object and purpose and even determining the object and purpose of the treaty is controversial. In this context two different mechanisms issuing from the Vienna Convention – opposability and permissibility- will be handled to determine the validity of the reservations in international human rights treaties. In this paper, within the scope of the human rights treaties’ aspects stated above, the application and the validity of the reservations to international human rights treaties will be discussed by assessing the solutions in the ILC’s Guide to Practice on Reservations.

Keywords

Reciprocity, Permissibility of reservations, Monitoring body, Opposability doctrine, Compatibility with the object and purpose

Supporting Institution

The author received no grant support for this work.

Uyum Arayışı: Viyana Çekinceler Rejimi ve Uluslararası Insan Hakları Andlaşmaları Üzerine

Abstract

Çekinceler andlaşmalar hukukunun önemli ve tartışmalı konularındandır. Bunların geçerliliği ve uygulanması Soykırım Suçunun Önlenmesi ve Cezalandırılması Sözleşmesi ile gündeme gelmiş ve çekincelere ilişkin teamül kuralları bu danışma görüşünde gözden geçirilmiştir. Viyana Andlaşmalar Hukuku Sözleşmesi ile ise çekincelere ilişkin teamül kurallarının kodifiye edildiği kabul edilmektedir. Ancak bu kurallar insan hakları andlaşmalarına uygulanırken bu andlaşmaların farklı nitelikleri gereğince yorumlanmaları ihtiyacı ortaya çıkmıştır. Öncelikle sözleşmesel uluslararası andlaşmalardan farklı olarak insan hakları andlaşmalarında tarafların hakları ve yükümlülükleri bakımından bir denge gözetilmemektedir. Bu nedenle de taraflara haklar ve yükümlülükler bakımından denklik sağlayan karşılıklılık ilkesi insan hakları andlaşmalarına ileri sürülen çekincelerde tam olarak işlememektedir. İkinci olarak insan hakları andlaşmaları evrensellik ve bütünlük geriliminin yaşandığı türden andlaşmalardır, zira daha fazla insanın haklarının düzenlenmesi ideali kimi hallerde andlaşmanın bütünlüğünü tehdit eden bir hal alabilecektir. Ayrıca andlaşmanın konu ve amacı ile bağdaşırlık bir çekincenin geçerliliği bakımından Viyana Andlaşmalar Hukuku Sözleşmesinde getirilmiş esas niteliğinde bir kuraldır, ancak bir çekincenin konu ve amaç ile bağdaşırlığına karar vermek hatta konu ve amacı tespit etmek oldukça tartışmalı hususlar olagelmiştir. Bu bağlamda kabul edilebilirlik ve itiraz edilebilirlik çekincelerin geçerli olup olmadığının değerlendirilmesinde iki farklı yöntem olarak VAHS’nde yer almaktadır. Bu çalışmada çekinceler rejiminin hukuk yaratıcı niteliğe sahip insan hakları andlaşmalarında uygulanması ve çekincelerin geçerliliği Uluslararası Hukuk Komisyonu’nun Uygulama Rehberi’nde getirdiği çözüm önerilerine değinilerek tartışılacaktır.

Keywords

Karşılıklılık, İzin verilebilirlik, Denetim mekanizması, İtiraz edilebilirlik doktrini, Konu ve amaca uygunluk

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