A. What Are the Basic Rights Covered by ICESCR

B. What is the link between the ICESCR and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)

Evolution of these rights in the UN documents

Relevant Documents

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• The Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
• The Conventions and documents dealing with specific issues, E.g.: Convention on the Rights of the Child
• International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination
• Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women
• ILO Documents

Explanatary Documents

• The Limburg Principles on the Implementation of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1986

(A group of distinguished experts in international law, convened by the International Commission of Jurists, the Faculty of Law of the University of Limburg (Maastricht, the Netherlands) and the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights, University of Cincinnati (Ohio, United States of America), met in Maastricht on 2-6 June 1986 to consider the nature and scope of the obligations of States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the consideration of States parties Reports by the newly constituted ECOSOC Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and international co-operation under Part IV of the Covenant.)

• Maastricht Guidelines on Violation of Ecomomic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1997

(This document elaborates on on the Limburg Principles as regards the nature and scope of violations of economic, social and cultural rights and appropriate responses and remedies.)

C. Whose Responsibility is it to realize these Rights?

* The individual is the active subject of all economic and social development

* The state must respect the right of the individual to take the appropriate action to achieve his ends. Here individual includes the collective as in the case of indigenous people. State must protect its subjects from more aggressive actors ( trade _ powerful economic interests etc). State must assist realization of rights, for example, the production, conservation and distribution of food.

D. State Responsibility

"It is now undisputed that all human rights are indivisible, interdependent, interrelated and of equal importance for human dignity. Therefore, states are as responsible for violations of economic, social and cultural rights as they are for violations of civil and political rights." (Maastricht Guidelines)

* State Obligation to Respect, Protect and Fulfill

Failure to perform any one of these three obligations constitutes a violation of such rights.

The obligation to respect requires States to refrain from interfering with the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. Thus, the right to housing is violated if the State engages in arbitrary forced evictions.

The obligation to protect requires States to prevent violations of such rights by third parties. Thus, the failure to ensure that private employers comply with basic labour standards may amount to a violation of the right to work or the right to just and favourable conditions of work.

The obligation to fulfill requires States to take appropriate legislative, administrative, budgetary, judicial and other measures towards the full realization of such rights. Thus, the failure of States to provide essential primary health care to those in need may amount to a violation of the rights to health and medical care.( Maastricht Guidelines)

* State Obligations of conduct and of result

The obligations to respect, protect and fulfil each contain elements of obligation of conduct and obligation of result. The obligation of conduct requires action reasonably calculated to realize the enjoyment of a particular right. In the case of the right to health, for example, the obligation of conduct could involve the adoption and implementation of a plan of action to reduce maternal mortality. The obligation of result requires States to achieve specific targets to satisfy a detailed substantive standard. With respect to the right to health, for example, the obligation of result requires the reduction of maternal mortality to levels agreed at the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development and the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women. (Maastricht Guidelines)

E. The philosophy behind the ICESCR : A man in need is not a free man.

Earlier documents and events signalling western recognition:

• French and British thinking of 17^th Century emphasises the necessity to restrain the power of authoritarian sovereigns- development of the idea of sovereignty of the people;
• Protective function of the state - John Locke and Jean- Jacque Rousseau;
• The British Bill of Rights(1690);
• The American Declaration of Independence in 1776
• French Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen-1779

"Rights of Man" meaning the white man- later inclusion of other races - later women - later children - American declaration did not include slaves.

Expansion of political rights together with social rights in some countries: UK, Nordic countries, Germany under Bismark.

Economic, Social and Cultural rights achieved recognition before the UDHR :

1890: an international conference held in Germany

1900: International Association for legal protection of workers-Basel

1905-1906: Swiss Government conference adopted first convention.

F. UN bodies dealing with Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

At the global level, there are many different types of institutions and bodies concerned with this category of human rights. First, there are several UN organs generally responsible for human rights, including civil and political as well as economic, social, cultural rights:

a) the General Assembly

b) the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

c) the Commission on Human Rights

d) the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

The Commission on the Status of Women, a subsidiary organ of ECOSOC, also deals with economic, social, and cultural rights related to women.

Other organs of the U.N. such as the Security Council, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) also are involved in various aspects of economic, social, and cultural rights in relation to their proper mandates which are not limited to human rights.