Closing an historic gap in human rights
The UN General Assembly has taken an important step to strengthen international protection of economic, social and cultural rights on the anniversary of the 60th anniversary of the UDHR
On 10 December the United Nations General Assembly adopted by consensus an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
It represents an historic advance for human rights on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and comes 42 years after a similar mechanism was adopted for the violation of civil and political rights.
“The approval of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is of singular importance by closing a historic gap,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, in her address to the General Assembly.
Under the Optional Protocol, individuals will be able to complain to an independent UN human rights body about violations of economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights to adequate housing, food, health, education and work.
Apart from providing a voice to victims of human rights violations, the Optional Protocol also “makes them better equipped to enlist the international community's help to address their plight,” Pillay said.
The Optional Protocol represents a milestone in the history of universal human rights, making a strong and unequivocal statement about the equal value and importance of all human rights and the need for strengthened legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights, she said.
“The Universal Declaration wisely chose not to rank rights. On the contrary, it recognised the equal status of political and civil rights with economic, social and cultural rights, and underlined that all rights are inextricably linked,” Pillay added.
“Violations of a set of rights reverberate on other rights and enfeeble them all.”
As the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted, the recent food emergencies, the degradation of the natural environment, the current financial crisis and the unrest that they engender all underscore that those who are at the frontlines of hardship are also likely to be the victims of the ripple effects of human rights violations.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights first began to discuss the need for an Optional Protocol twenty years ago.
In June 2006, after a first period of slow progress and gradual advances, the new Human Rights Council, among one of its first decisions, mandated an open-ended Working Group to draft this new human rights instrument. The task was completed within the two year mandate.
The text of the Optional Protocol was adopted by the Human Rights Council in June 2008 and transmitted to the General Assembly for final approval and adoption.
It will now be opened for signature during 2009 and enter into force once it has been ratified by ten States.
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