WUNRN
Attached is the Draft Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
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International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
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Louise
Arbour is United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Optional
Protocol to the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights
On June 18, the United Nations’ intergovernmental Human
Rights Council took an important step toward eliminating the artificial divide
between freedom from fear and freedom from want that has characterized the
human rights system since its inception. By giving the green light to the
Optional Protocol to the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and
Cultural Rights, the Council has established an important mechanism to expose
abuses that are typically linked to poverty, discrimination, and neglect, and
that victims frequently endure in silence and helplessness.
It will now be up to the UN
General Assembly to provide final approval of the Protocol. If adopted,
this instrument can make a real difference in the lives of those who are often
left to languish at the margins of society, and are denied their economic,
social, and cultural rights, such as access to adequate nutrition, health
services, housing, and education.
Sixty years ago, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights recognized that both freedom from want and freedom
from fear are indispensable preconditions for a dignified life. The
Declaration unequivocally linked destitution and exclusion with discrimination
and unequal access to resources and opportunities. Its framers understood
that social and cultural stigmatization precludes full participation in public
life and the ability to influence policies and obtain justice.
Yet this unified approach was
undermined by the post-World War II logic of geopolitical blocs competing over
ideas, power, and influence. Human rights were also affected by such Cold
War bipolarity. Countries with planned economies argued that the need for
survival superseded the aspiration to freedom, so that access to basic
necessities included in the basket of economic, social, and cultural rights
should take priority in policy and practice.
By contrast, Western governments
were wary of this perspective, which they feared would hamper free-market
practices, impose overly cumbersome financial obligations, or both. Thus,
they chose to prioritize those civil and political rights that they viewed as
the hallmarks of democracy.
Against this background, it was
impossible to agree on a single, comprehensive human rights instrument giving
holistic effect to the Declaration’s principles. And, unsurprisingly, it
took almost two decades before UN member states simultaneously adopted two
separate treaties – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights –
encompassing the two distinct baskets of rights. However, only the former
treaty was endowed with a follow-up mechanism to monitor its implementation.
In practice, this discrepancy
created a category of “alpha” rights – civil and political – that took priority
in the influential and wealthy countries’ domestic and foreign policy
agendas. By contrast, economic, social, and cultural rights were often
left to linger at the bottom of the national and international “to do” lists.
Addressing this imbalance between
the two baskets of rights, the new Protocol establishes for the Covenant on
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights a vehicle to expose abuse, known as a
“complaint mechanism,” similar to those created for other core human rights
treaties. This procedure may seem opaque, but by lodging a complaint under
the Protocol’s provisions, victims will now be able to bring to the surface
abuses that their governments inflict, fail to stop, ignore, or do not
redress. In sum, the Protocol provides a way for individuals, who may
otherwise be isolated and powerless, to make the international community aware
of their plight.
After its adoption by the General
Assembly, the Protocol will enter into force when a critical mass of UN member
states has ratified it. This should contribute to the development of
appropriate human rights-based programs and policies enhancing freedoms and
welfare for individuals and their communities.
Not all countries will embrace
the Protocol. Some will prefer to avoid any strengthening of economic,
social, and cultural rights and will seek to maintain the status quo. The
better and fairer position, however, is to embrace the vision of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and promote unambiguously the idea that human
dignity requires respect for the equally vital and mutually dependent freedoms
from fear and want.