ABSTRACT
Both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights require member states to ensure or secure the rights set out in each instrument to all citizens within their jurisdiction (ICCPR A.2; ECHR A.I). These obligations are both absolute and immediate. They are not affected by the prevailing circumstances or limited resources of member states; and each member state is bound to take the necessary steps to secure the rights in question from the moment that they ratify the instrument (Sieghart 1983:57). The rights to be ensured and secured are wide-ranging. In this book, we concentrate on ‘democratic rights’—those rights which are clearly integral to the democratic process.
