Activist’s Manual on the ICESCR [pdf 1.25 mb]
Bibliography
CESR's Guide to the Legal Framework of ESCR
Justiciability of ESCR
Optional Protocol to the ICESCR
Other Resources and Links
Workshop Report: Developing a Common Framework for the Promotion of ESCR [pdf 123.81 kb]
What are Economic, Social, and Cultural rights?
Economic, social, and cultural rights include the human right to work, the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing, and housing, the right to physical and mental health, the right to social security, the right to a healthy environment, and the right to education. For more information on a specific ESC right, click one of the links on the left.
ESCR are part of a larger body of human rights law that developed in the aftermath of World War II. Human rights law includes all economic and social rights, plus civil and political rights like the right to free speech and the right to a fair trial. These rights are deeply intertwined: for example, the right to speak freely means little without a basic education. Similarly, the right to work means little if you are not allowed to meet and assemble in groups to discuss work conditions.
The most important human rights law is in the International Bill of Human Rights, which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Economic and social rights are also included in numerous other human rights legal instruments. Among the most important are:
- Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
- Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
- Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD)
- Vienna World Conference on Human Rights Declaration and Plan of Action
- Conventions of the International Labor Organization
The U.N. human rights system is rooted in the International Bill of Rights, but also includes additional human rights treaties. Each of the treaties is governed by a Treaty Body that provides authoritative interpretations of its terms. The Treaty Bodies also publish General Comments, which elaborate on specific articles of the treaties. For a list of General Comments to the ICESCR, click here. For more information on the U.N. human rights system, click here.
CESR has prepared a Guide to the Legal Framework of economic, social, and cultural rights that elaborates on how those rights exist in international law. Click here for the Guide. In 1995, CESR hosted a set of workshops that explored the theoretical and practical concerns surrounding economic, social, and cultural rights advocacy and practice. Click here for the Workshop Report [pdf 123.81 kb].
Why are they called "rights"?
All the world's great religious and moral traditions, philosophers, and revolutionaries, recognize that human beings deserve to live in freedom, justice, dignity and economic security. The International Bill of Rights grew out of these traditions, and calls for all governments to make sure their citizens have human rights -- civil, political, social, cultural and economic. Referring to economic, social and cultural issues as "rights" uses the legal framework developed under international law, and gives individuals legitimate claims against state and non-state actors for protection and guarantees.
During the Cold War and trickle-down economics theory, ESCR were frequently mis-labled as "benefits," meaning individuals had no basic claim to things like food and shelter. After the Covenant came into force in 1976, jurisprudence around economic and social rights began to develop and great progress following the formation of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
Economic and social rights require governments and other powerful actors to ensure that people have access to basic needs, and that people have a voice in decisions affecting their well-being. Poverty and injustice are neither inevitable nor natural, but arise from deliberate decisions and policies, and the human rights legal framework provides a way to hold public officials accountable for development policies and priorities.
What are the minimum requirements?
States are bound to ensure minimum human rights regardless of their resource constraints. For ESC rights, minimum core requirements include available foodstuffs for the population, essential primary health care, basic shelter and housing, and the most basic forms of education. The Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights elaborated on state obligations under General Comment 3: The Nature of States Parties Obligations
How do states fulfill their minimum requirements?
Every government in the world has certain responsibilities regarding its citizens. The human rights legal framework spells out those responsibilities with the following three obligations:
- Respect – the obligation to respect requires governments to refrain from interfering directly or indirectly with the enjoyment of ESCR
- Protect – the obligation to protect requires governments to prevent third parties, such as corporations, from interfering in any way with the enjoyment of ESCR
- Fulfill – the obligation to fulfill requires governments to adopt the necessary measures to achieve the full realization of ESCR
What about non-state actors?
Human rights treaties are signed by governments, and are the duty of governments to enforce. However, this does not mean that non-state actors are free to violate people's human rights. There are three main ways to apply human rights standards to non-state actors. First, governments have the primary responsibility to protect human rights, including from violations by non-state actors. Second, individuals may enforce their basic rights through judicial action. Finally, non-state actors are bound to respect human rights standards through the universal protection of human dignity. For more information on the role and responsibility of non-state actors, see Chris Jochnick's article, Confronting the Imupunity of Non-State Actors: New Fields for the Promotion of Human Rights.
How are these rights enforced?
At the international level, the most effective enforcement mechanism for all international human rights is political pressure. Those states that have ratified the ICESCR (click here for a list [pdf 106 kb]) are required to submit regular reports, every five years, to the Committee on Economic and Social Rights that detail their human rights standards. When these reports are reviewed (click here for 2004 and 2005 schedules), it provides an excellent opportunity for civil society and the international community at large to put pressure on a country to adhere to its legal obligations. To learn more about how to work with the Committee, please refer to the Activist’s Manual on the International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [pdf 1.25 mb], which was prepared by Jeff King for CESR and the Sri Lankan-based Law and Society Trust.
Currently, there is no way for individuals to bring forward violations of ESCR to the Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights. However, governments have been meeting every year at the United Nations to discuss the possibility of allowing individual complaints. This system would be similar to the one that currently exists with the Human Rights Committee for the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. NGOs including CESR strongly support having an individual complaint mechanism available. The mechanism would be in an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. For more information on the Optional Protocol and its progress, click here.
For those countries that haven't ratified the ICESCR, there are other international venues that apply political pressure. For example, a country may be a party to the CRC or CEDAW, both of which include ESCR. Larger bodies, like the Commission on Human Rights, can also be used to apply political pressure. Additionally, petitions in regional human rights commissions can also be effective in highlighting an issue and seeking remedy.
At the domestic level, there are political and legal remedies for many ESC violations. Although these remedies are still far from comprehensive, they do demonstrate that economic and social rights are fundamentally justiciable. For example, a core part of every ESCR is a prohibition on discrimination, whether for employment, housing, or food. Anti-discrimination laws exist in most countries, and are fully enforceable in a court of law. For more on the justiciability of ESCR, click here.