About the event:
On September 24th, 2009, the OptionalProtocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights willbe opened for signature at a ceremony at UN headquarters in New York. Onceoperational, this new international mechanism will provide victims of economic,social and cultural rights violations who are not able to get an effectiveremedy in their domestic legal system with tangible legal options for redress.In doing so, it will correct a historic imbalance in human rights protection, whichhas long marginalized economic, social and cultural rights.
On the eve of this historicoccasion, CHRGJ and the NGO Coalition for an OP-ICESCR will host adiscussion among three of the international human rights experts who werepivotal in moving the Optional Protocol forward. Please join us as CHRGJ???sfaculty chair, Philip Alston, engages Catarina de Albuquerque and Bruce Porterin a conversation about the evolution of the Optional Protocol, its possibleimpacts, and the implementation challenges it is likely to face.
When: Wednesday 23 September 2009, 5:00pm-7:00pm
Where: Furman Hall 212 (245 Sullivan Street, NYU School of Law)
RSVP: to ryank@exchange.law.nyu.edu
Event to be followed by a brief reception.
Background on the OptionalProtocol
Countless people around the worldsuffer violations of their economic, social and cultural rights, includingviolations of their rights to adequate housing, food, water and sanitation,health, work and education. Discrimination in accessing public services such ashealth, education or food distribution systems, working without any laborprotections, and forced evictions are only a few examples of the abuses facedby many people. Access to justice is a right of all victims but in many partsof the world, individuals are unable to hold governments, companies, and othersaccountable for violating their rights. In many countries, most of theeconomic, social and cultural rights are not recognized or enforceable by law,leaving people with little hope of an effective remedy. Existing remedies mayalso be ineffective or inadequately enforced.
The United Nations has created anew international mechanism through the Optional Protocol to the InternationalCovenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rightsto address these shortcomings. The Optional Protocol aims to enable those whoseeconomic, social and cultural rights are violated???and who are denied a remedyin their countries???to seek justice at the international level. It also standsto influence decisions by judicial bodies at the national and regional levelsand create more opportunities for people to advocate for the enforcement ofeconomic, social and cultural rights within their own countries.
On September 24th, 2009, theOptional Protocol will be opened for signature and ratification at a ceremonyat UN headquarters in New York. It will not come into force until ten stateshave ratified it. Victims of violations of ESC rights can only utilizethe procedure after their state has ratified the Optional Protocol.
How the Optional Protocolworks
* StatesParties to the Covenant joining the Optional Protocol recognize the competenceof the UN Committee on ESCR to receive and consider communications fromindividuals or groups of individuals alleging violations of the economic,social and cultural rights recognized in the Covenant on ESCR.
* The OptionalProtocol provides for the possibility of interim measures by providing that theCommittee may transmit to the State Party concerned for its urgentconsideration a request that the State Party take the necessary steps to avoidpossible irreparable damage to the victims of the alleged violations.
* The OptionalProtocol also creates an inquiry procedure, setting out that if the Committeereceives reliable information indicating grave or systematic violations of theCovenant, the Committee shall invite that State Party to cooperate in theexamination of the information and to this end to submit observations withregard to the information concerned. The inquiry may include a visit to theterritory of the State Party concerned.
* The OptionalProtocol requires that States take all appropriate measures to ensure thatindividuals under its jurisdiction are not subjected to any form ofill-treatment or intimidation as a consequence of communicating with the Committeepursuant to the Optional Protocol.
About the Panelists:
Philip Alston is theFaculty Director and Chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice atNYU School of Law, where he also serves as John Norton Pomeroy Professor ofLaw. He is currently the Special Adviser to the UN High Commissioner for HumanRights on the Millennium Development Goals, and UN Special Rapporteur onextrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. From 1991 to 1998 Philip wasChair of the UN Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights.
Catarina de Albuquerque isa Portuguese lawyer, currently working as a senior legal adviser at the Officefor Documentation and Comparative Law (an independent institution under thePortuguese Prosecutor General???s Office) working in the area of human rights.She is an Invited Professor at the Universities of Lisbon and Coimbra in hercountry. For more than ten years she has represented her country ininternational negotiations and conferences in the area of human rights at theUN, Council of Europe and European Union.
From 2004-08 she was theChairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on an Optional Protocol to theInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In September2008, she was appointed Independent Expert on the issue of human rightsobligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation by theHuman Rights Council.
Bruce Porter is a humanrights consultant, researcher, and well-known advocate for the rights of poorpeople in Canada and internationally. He is the Director of the SocialRights Advocacy Centre and the Co-ordinator of the Charter Committee on PovertyIssues (CCPI), for which he has co-ordinated 11 interventions at the SupremeCourt of Canada. He is also a member of the Steering Committee of the NGOCoalition for an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights, which led the campaign for a complaints procedureunder the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 2008.