International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
Admin GHRTV
Author: Alessandro Di Pietrantonio
GHRD intern – International Justice and Human Rights Team
Undergraduate student in Law (Teramo University)
Title: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
Adopted by: United Nations General Assembly (by resolution 2200A)
When: 16 December 1966
Into force: 3 January 1976
Status: legally binding
What is the ICESCR?
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) form the so-called International Bill of Rights, as named by the United Nations (UN) General Assembly. The two Covenants recognize that “...the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights” [1].
As the ICCPR, the ICESCR was adopted after approximately 20 years of negotiations and spelled out some of the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.[2]
The ICESCR aims to express the commitments adopted after World War II to promote social progress. At the time of the negotiations, the ICESCR represented an expression of the values and rights of the Soviet socialist bloc, as opposed to civil and political rights in the ICCPR, which, at the time, was considered an expression of Western liberal culture. Although these two treaties reflected the differences of values and cultures of the Cold War context,[3] nowadays their universality is the expression of a broader consensus according to which human beings should not have alternatively either political freedom or economic rights, but that everyone should enjoy them concomitantly, since human rights are interconnected.
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Economic, social and cultural rights are those relating to the workplace, social security, family life and access to housing, food, health care and education, for instance. For a long time, those rights were considered to belong to a different category than civil rights because the former requires a positive intervention from the state, an effort on its part to ensure the population with full enjoyment from these rights (duty to protect and fulfil). On the contrary, civil and political rights were considered primarily freedoms that the state must ensure to citizens, by refraining from interfering in their enjoyment of those rights (duty to respect). Nowadays this distinction is considered outdated and not very useful, and several successive treaties address indiscriminately rights belonging to both categories[4].
The ICESCR is the most comprehensive international treaty addressing socioeconomic rights and is also the most widely applicable: to date, 171 states have ratified the ICESCR[5] and many of them have articulated their commitment to economic, social and cultural rights through domestic law and national constitutions[6]. Its implementation is monitored by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).
Progressive Realisation
Considering the challenges of implementing those rights, in special, economic challenges of developing countries, states parties to the ICESCR have agreed on the ‘progressive realisation’ of those rights. Progressive realisation means that states parties to the ICESCR agree to comply with duties to the maximum of their available resources, thus states commit themselves to realize and guaranteeing economic, social and cultural rights to the best of their ability, as far as their resources enable them to do so.
This is particularly important because this category of rights requires action and expenditure by states, but not all of them have the same resources to guarantee them. However, this does not mean that states should not protect and guarantee socioeconomic rights, but that they can do so to the limits of their resources, having the obligation to do everything in their power to ensure a minimum level of rights enjoyment for all.[7] Therefore, even if it is not always possible to guarantee these rights immediately, states that have ratified the ICESCR must make every effort to guarantee them on a longer-term perspective, working towards their implementation according to their possibilities[8].The role of the CESCR[9]:
All States Parties are required to submit regular reports to the Committee every five years (the first within two years of acceptance of the Treaty) on how the rights are being implemented and enforced. The Committee, after reviewing the reports, addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of concluding observations.
In certain circumstances, the Committee may also open investigations into serious or systematic violations of any of the economic, social and cultural rights set out in the Covenant, and examine inter-state complaints.
Some of the rights enshrined in the ICESCR[10]:
- the right to self-determination of all peoples (article 1)
- the right to non-discrimination based on race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (article 2)
- the equal right of men and women to enjoy the rights in the ICESCR (article 3)
- the right to work (articles 6-7)
- the right to form and join trade unions (article 8)
- the right to social security (article 9)
- the right to an adequate standard of living (article 11)
- the right to health (article 12)
- the right to education (articles 13-14)
Where can I find a copy of the ICESCR?
A copy of the Covenant is accessible from this link: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx
[1] Preamble of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (United Nations General Assembly, 1966)
[2] World Health Organization, ‘Health and human rights – International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural rights’, https://www.who.int/hhr/Economic_social_cultural.pdf
[3] OHCHR, Fact Sheet n.33, https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/factsheet33en.pdf
[4] I bidem
[5] OHCHR, Status of ratification – Interactive Dashboard, https://indicators.ohchr.org/
[6] ESCR-net, ‘Introduction to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’, https://www.escr-net.org/rights
[7] OHCHR, Fact Sheet n.33, https://www.ohchr.org/documents/publications/factsheet33en.pdf
[8] International Justice Resource Center, ‘Economic, social and cultural rights’, https://ijrcenter.org/thematic-research-guides/economic-social-and-cultural-rights-2/
[9]United Nations Human Rights – Office of the High Commissioner, ‘Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights’, https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/cescr/pages/cescrintro.aspx
[10] International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (United Nations General Assembly, 1966)
