As a result of its origins in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the amount of work that it has done, the UN Human Rights Committee is considered the most important body in the UN human rights treaty system. Sensitive to the viewpoint of developing countries, and taking into account the interplay of law and politics, this comprehensive study of the Committee's procedure and practice assesses its conceptual, institutional and functional frameworks and analyses a large number of cases with which the Committee has dealt. It is based on the drafting history of the Covenant and the Optional Protocols thereto, in-depth analysis of the relevant documents of the United Nations and other international bodies, observations on the functioning of the Committee and interviews with a number of activists, experts and officials dealing with the work of the Committee.