What are the obligations of a State party to the Covenant and a State who is signatory?
International human rights law lays down obligations which States are bound to respect. By becoming parties to international treaties, States assume obligations and duties under international law to respect, to protect and to fulfil human rights. Under the Second Optional Protocol the main duties of State parties are to ban executions within their jurisdiction and to take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within their jurisdiction. States that are signatories to the Covenant but have not yet ratified it are not bound by the obligations contained in the Covenant. However, under the law of Treaties established by the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969), a State which is signatory to a Convention is obliged to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty. In the case of the Second Optional Protocol it can be argued that by becoming signatories to the Protocol States are prohibited from carrying out executions within their territory
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