PHM-Exch> A call on States to ratify new instrument to enhance protection of economic, social and cultural rights

Thu May 9 20:51:25 PDT 2013

From: Bahram Ghazi <bghazi at ohchr.org>

*A call on States to ratify new instrument to enhance protection of
economic, social and cultural rights*

GENEVA (8 May 2013) – A group of United Nations human rights experts today
urged world governments to ratify a key international instrument that
allows individuals and groups who have been denied their economic, social
and cultural rights to have their claims reviewed directly by a UN
committee of experts.

The Optional Protocol* to the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, which has just entered into force, has been ratified
so far by ten pioneering States: Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and
Uruguay, forming a “club for social justice”.

“This new procedure empowers individuals and groups, regardless of their
nationality or migration status, to invoke, among other things, the rights
to food, water and sanitation, health, education, housing, work and social
security, before the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,”
the experts said.

The UN independent experts stressed that the Optional Protocol represents
“a major step in the protection and realization of economic, social and
cultural rights, and a powerful affirmation that they are as important as
civil and political rights, and fundamentally interrelated and
interdependent with them.”

This new mechanism, they added, gives hope against the impending
retrogression inherent in so-called ‘austerity measures.’ “Such
retrogression is incompatible with article 5 of the Covenant on Economic
Social and Cultural Rights,” they stated.

“Case law is living law that gives a name and a face to individual
victims,” the experts noted. “It is dynamic and future-oriented and it
creates precedent that serves a triple purpose: to provide a tailored
remedy in specific situations, concretize the norms so as to facilitate
their understanding by public officials and enforcement by domestic courts, and
ultimately contribute to the prevention of violations,” added the experts.

“The ‘club for social justice’ will surely grow, as was the case with the
Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which
since its entry into force in 1976 has mandated the Human Rights Committee
to register and examine thousands of cases, leading to the adoption of
ground-breaking case-law and concrete remedies to the victims,” the experts
said.

“We urge governments worldwide to join this ‘club for social justice’, and
call on human rights defenders, national human rights institutions and
civil society at large to publicize this new petitions procedure in a
concerted effort aiming at the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, so as to
advance toward universal participation,” the UN independent experts
concluded.

*(*)* Check the Optional Protocol:  *
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/docs/A.RES.63.117_en.pdf*<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/docs/A.RES.63.117_en.pdf>

ENDS

*The experts:** Raquel ROLNIK, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a
component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right
to non-discrimination in this context; Farida SHAHEED, Special Rapporteur
in the field of cultural rights; Alfred de ZAYAS, Independent expert on the
promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; Kishore SINGH,
Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances; Christoph HEYNS, Special Rapporteur on
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Olivier De SCHUTTER,
Special Rapporteur on the right to food; Cephas LUMINA, Independent Expert
on the effects of foreign debt and other related international financial
obligations of States on the full enjoyment of all human rights,
particularly economic, social and cultural rights; Maina KIAI, Special
Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association
Anand GROVER, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment
of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; Margaret
SEKAGGYA, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders;
François CRÉPEAU, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants; Pablo
De GREIFF, Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice,
reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence; Gulnara SHAHINIAN, Special
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and its
consequences; Ben EMMERSON, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and
protection of human rights while countering terrorism  Catarina de
ALBUQUERQUE, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water
and sanitation. Learn more: **
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Themes.aspx*<http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Themes.aspx>
* *

*Provisional rules of procedure under the Optional Protocol: **
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/index.htm*<http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/index.htm>

*For more information and media requests**, please contact Thibaut Guillet
(+41 22 9179329 / **spbconsultant10 at ohchr.org* <spbconsultant10 at ohchr.org>*)
*

For *media inquiries* related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9383 / *
xcelaya at ohchr.org* <xcelaya at ohchr.org>)

*UN Human Rights, follow us on social media:*
*Facebook:* *https://www.facebook.com/unitednationshumanrights*<https://www.facebook.com/unitednationshumanrights>
*
Twitter:* *http://twitter.com/UNrightswire*<http://twitter.com/UNrightswire>
*Google+* gplus.to/unitednationshumanrights    *
YouTube:* *http://www.youtube.com/UNOHCHR * <http://www.youtube.com/UNOHCHR>
*Storify:
**http://storify.com/UNrightswire*<http://storify.com/UNrightswire>

*The world we want:* *
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/MDGPost2015Agenda.aspx*<http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/MDGPost2015Agenda.aspx>
 __._,_.___
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20130510/02f87963/attachment.html>