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.