Another tool by which the Committee performs its function of interpreting the Covenant and clarifying the scope and meaning of its articles and thus all obligations of States parties is the preparation and adoption of so-called general comments. Since the provisions of the Covenant, like those of most human rights treaties, are formulated in a general form and can therefore be interpreted in different ways, the Committee has engaged in the preparation of general comments formulated as recommendations to all States parties. In order to address a specific problem that arises in the context of the situation of an individual State party, in a general comment, the Committee analyzes in depth and comprehensively a specific article or a general problem of the Covenant. Although most of the general comments provide a detailed interpretation of one of the rights enshrined in the Covenant, some of them focus on the rights of individual groups under the Covenant, in particular foreigners, while others address procedural issues, such as the preparation of reports, or various issues such as reservations to the Covenant.
The general comments are available in the treaty body database of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf ).
The Committee's authority in connection with the preparation of these documents is defined in article 40, paragraph 4, of the Covenant, which provides that it shall transmit to all States parties "such general comments as it deems appropriate". The first general comments, adopted in the early 1980s, were very brief. However, since the late 1980s, they have become more detailed.
Currently, the general comment is a general statement on a legal issue that expresses the Committee's conceptual approach to the content of a particular provision, and in this form it can serve as a very useful guide to understanding the normative nature of international human rights obligations. This function provides the Committee with an opportunity to give the Covenant a new meaning in modern conditions, in which the understanding and understanding of wording and practice have changed significantly since the adoption of the Covenant. In this sense, the Pact is a living organism, which, as at the time of its adoption, is still relevant for finding answers to the problems of our time. Thus, these observations continue to serve as a guide for States parties in the application of the provisions of the Covenant, as well as in the preparation of reports.
In 2003, during the Inter-Committee Meeting, a discussion began on the possibility of joint general comments by treaty bodies, taking into account the significant duplication of provisions of various treaties monitored by different committees in some cases. In the future, the Committees will thus be able to come to the practice of adopting such comments on issues of common interest, in particular on the meaning of the prohibition of discrimination or on the consequences of non-reporting by States parties.