WIPO Lex

Belgium

Objection with regard to the reservation and statement made by Qatar upon accession: (May 21, 2019)
"The Kingdom of Belgium has carefully examined the reservation and statement made by the State of Qatar upon its accession, on 21 May 2018, to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The reservation to article 3 and the statement concerning article 8 make the provisions of the Covenant subject to their compatibility with the Sharia or national legislation. The Kingdom of Belgium considers that this reservation and this declaration tend to limit the responsibility of the State of Qatar under the Covenant by means of a general reference to the rules of national law and Sharia. This creates uncertainty as to the extent to which the State of Qatar intends to fulfil its obligations under the Covenant and raises doubts about the State of Qatar's compliance with the object and purpose of the Covenant.
The Kingdom of Belgium recalls that under article 19 of the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties, a State cannot make a reservation incompatible with the object and purpose of a treaty. Moreover, article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the law of treaties stipulates that a party may not invoke the provisions of its national law as justifying the non-fulfilment of a treaty.
Accordingly, the Kingdom of Belgium objects to the reservation made by the State of Qatar with respect to article 3 and to its statement in respect of article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The Kingdom of Belgium specifies that this objection does not preclude the entry into force of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights between the Kingdom of Belgium and the State of Qatar."

Cambodia

The signature was effected by Democratic Kampuchea. In this regard the Secretary-General received, on November 5, 1980, the following communication from the Government of Mongolia:
"The Government of the Mongolian People's Republic considers that only the People's Revolutionary Council of Kampuchea as the sole authentic and lawful representative of the Kampuchean people has the right to assume international obligations on behalf of the Kampuchean people. Therefore the Government of the Mongolian People's Republic considers that the signature of the Human Rights Covenants by the representative of the so-called Democratic Kampuchea, a régime that ceased to exist as a result of the people's revolution in Kampuchea, is null and void.
The signing of the Human Rights Covenants by an individual, whose regime during its short period of reign in Kampuchea had exterminated about 3 million people and had thus grossly violated the elementary norms of human rights, each and every provision of the Human Rights Covenants is a regrettable precedence, which discredits the noble aims and lofty principles of the United Nations Charter, the very spirit of the above-mentioned Covenants, gravely impairs the prestige of the United Nations.
Similar communications were received from the Government of the following States on the dates indicated and their texts were circulated as depositary notifications or, at the request of the States concerned, as official documents of the General Assembly:
German Democratic Republic on 11 Dec 1980;
Poland on 12 Dec 1980;
Ukraine on 16 Dec 1980;
Hungary on 19 Jan 1981;
Bulgaria on 29 Jan 1981;
Belarus on 18 Feb 1981;
Russian Federation on 18 Feb 1981;
Czechoslovakia on 10 Mar 1981."

Although Democratic Kampuchea had signed both the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on October 17, 1980, the Government of Cambodia deposited an instrument of accession to the said Covenants.

China

Signed on behalf of the Republic of China on October 5, 1967.
With reference to the above-mentioned signature, communications have been addressed to the Secretary-General by the Permanent Representatives of Permanent Missions to the United Nations of Bulgaria, Byelorussian SSR, Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, Romania, the Ukrainian SSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Yugoslavia, stating that their Governments did not recognize the said signature as valid since the only Government authorized to represent China and to assume obligations on its behalf was the Government of the People's Republic of China.
In letters addressed to the Secretary-General in regard to the above-mentioned communications, the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations stated that the Republic of China, a sovereign State and Member of the United Nations, had attended the twenty-first regular session of the General Assembly of the United Nations and contributed to the formulation of, and signed the Covenants and the Optional Protocol concerned, and that "any statements or reservations relating to the above-mentioned Covenants and Optional Protocol that are incompatible with or derogatory to the legitimate position of the Government of the Republic of China shall in no way affect the rights and obligations of the Republic of China under these Covenants and Optional Protocol".