Economic, Social, Cultural Rights and Women's Rights Flashcards
The International Bill of Rights is comprised of what docs?
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights set out both civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights. What would you say is the relationship between the two?
Socialist and developing countries say: The achievement of a minimum standard of economic and social welfare is an essential precondition to the realization of political and civil rights.
Other states: Political and civil rights are important to economic progress.
the General Assembly reaffirmed that the two sets of rights are “interconnected and interdependent,” and emphasized that “when deprived of economic, social, and cultural rights, man does not represent the human person whom the Universal Declaration of regards as the ideal of the free man.”
The rights were framed into two different categories. Do you think any of them are more important than others?
Two categories:
- Civil and political rights
- Economic, social, and cultural rights
What are the most relevant legal instruments when it comes to the economic, social and cultural rights?
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICEST)
What is the ICESCR?
International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights is a multilateral treaty. It was adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of December 16, 1966. There are 170 parties, 71 signatures, including the U.S. (signed Oct 5. 1977) but not yet ratified. Chances of ratification seem slim, at least at present, due to apparent ideological objection.
(U.S. has not ratified)
What are some of its key provisions of the ICESCR?
Article 2: Each state party “undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant.”
Article 5: Rights may be subject to some limitations.
Article 6: Right to work.
Article 7: Right to just and favorable working conditions.
Article 9: Right to social security
Article 11: Right to adequate standard of living
Article 12: Right to health.
Does ICESCR speak to the right to food in ICESCR but also as explained in General Comment 12?
Yes. Article 11 (on page 358) refers to the rights of adequate standard of living including “adequate food” “fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger”
Although the Universal Declaration and the ICESCR do not use the precise phrase “right to food,” a broad array of governments and human rights advocates argue that such a right flows from those instruments.
General Comment 12 says States need to address the question of food in order to deal with the obligations of article 11 regarding hunger. Duties under article 11: obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil. The obligation to respect existing access to adequate food requires States parties not to take any measures that result in preventing such access. The obligation to protect requires measures by the State to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food. The obligation to fulfil (facilitate) means the State must pro-actively engage in activities intended to strengthen people’s access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security.
What does substantive Article 2 of the ICESCR provide, and how does that compare to the same article in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights?
Article 2 of the ICESCR provides that “Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures.”
This compares to the same article in the ICCPR
What is the legal basis for the ICESCR Committee?
The UN Economic and Social Council set up the ICESCR Committee modeled after the Human Rights Committee.
The ICESCR Committee monitors state reports, issues comments and recommendations on states’ implementation of the Covenant, authors General Comments interpreting the Covenant, and hears individual complaints against states that have acceded to a 2008 Optional Protocol to the Covenant.
What is the scope of the obligation “to the maximum of its available resources” and the position of the ICESCR Committee in General Comment No. 3?
In order for State party to be able to attribute its failure to meet at least it minimum core obligations to a lack of available resources it must demonstrate that every effort has been made to use all resources that are at its disposition in an effort to satisfy, as a matter of priority, those minimum obligations.
What are the various reporting obligations of states under this convention? Do these, in your view, impose too heavy a burden on states?
Under Article 16 of the ICESCR, states are required to submit reports “on the measures they have adopted and the progress made in achieving observance of” ICESCR rights.
What is the US position on ESCR?
The United States played a leading role in pressing for separate covenants and has expressed considerable skepticism regarding the status of economic, social, and cultural rights. But the U.S. position has varied considerably from administration to administration. President Carter signed the ICESCR in 1978 and sent it to the Senate for its advice and consent. The Covenant languished there, and the Reagan and first Bush Administrations both opposed its ratification. In 1993, the Clinton Administration announced that it would support ratification of the ICESCR, but in the face of Senate reluctance, it did not press the issue. The Obama Administration also did not press for ratification, and as of 2019, there was not any indication that the Trump Administration would.
What is the distinction that it draws between the right to food and the right to access food? Do you agree or disagree with this approach, and if so, why?
The U.S. imposed opposition to the “right to food” view that there is a violation of the Covenant “if a state does not provide food to all” or denies “a remedy against the state to those individuals who believe their right has been denied.” Domestically, the United States pursues policies that promote access to food, and there is an objective to achieve a world where everyone has adequate access to food, but we do not treat the right to food as an enforceable obligation.
What was the Four Freedom’s speech and what does it have to do with the rights we are studying?
In January 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his famous “Four Freedoms” speech, warning the country of the need to strengthen democracy and combat totalitarianism, in part by protecting “four essential human freedoms,” among them “freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world.”
Can you chart their evolution and the initial legal steps taken through to the adoption of CEDAW?
1946: Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was created as a subcommission of the UN Human Rights Commission.
1960s: Supporters of women’s rights had concluded that the general human rights system was not adequately protecting women’s interests and that a more comprehensive approach was needed.
1963: The UN Economic and Social Council invited CSW to prepare a draft declaration that would combine in a single instrument international standards relating to women’s rights.
1967: General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
1979: CSW began work on a comprehensive treaty, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1979 as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
CEDAW entered into force two years later, faster than any other general human rights treaty.
Early 2019: 189 states were party to CEDAW.
