From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Bahram Ghazi</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bghazi@ohchr.org">bghazi@ohchr.org</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote"> <br><div style><div><div><div><p>
<br><font face="Arial" size="4"><b>A call on States to ratify new instrument
to enhance protection of economic, social and cultural rights</b></font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">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.</font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">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”.</font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">“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.</font>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3"> </font>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">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.”</font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">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.</font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">“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</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">,</font><font face="Verdana">
</font><font face="Arial" size="3">and ultimately contribute to the prevention
of violations</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">,</font><font face="Arial" size="3">”
added the experts. </font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">“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.</font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">“We urge governments worldwide to join this
‘club for social justice’, and call on human rights defenders</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">,</font><font face="Arial" size="3">
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</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">,</font><font face="Arial" size="3">”
the UN independent experts concluded. </font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial"><b>(*)</b> Check the Optional Protocol: </font><a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/docs/A.RES.63.117_en.pdf" target="_blank"><font color="blue" face="Arial"><u>http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/docs/A.RES.63.117_en.pdf</u></font></a><font face="Arial">
<br>
</font>
<br><font face="Arial" size="3">ENDS </font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial"><b><i>The experts:</i></b><i> 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: </i></font><a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Themes.aspx" target="_blank"><font color="blue" face="Arial"><i><u>http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/SP/Pages/Themes.aspx</u></i></font></a><font face="Arial"><i>
</i></font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial"><i>Provisional rules of procedure under the
Optional Protocol: </i></font><a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/index.htm" target="_blank"><font color="blue" face="Arial"><i><u>http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/index.htm</u></i></font></a>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial"><i>For more information and <b>media requests</b></i><i>,
please contact Thibaut Guillet (+41 22 9179329 / </i></font><a href="mailto:spbconsultant10@ohchr.org" target="_blank"><font color="blue" face="Arial"><i><u>spbconsultant10@ohchr.org</u></i></font></a><font face="Arial"><i>)</i></font>
<br>
<br><font face="Arial">For <b>media inquiries</b> related to other
UN independent experts:</font>
<br><font face="Arial">Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit
(+ 41 22 917 9383 / </font><a href="mailto:xcelaya@ohchr.org" target="_blank"><font color="blue" face="Arial"><u>xcelaya@ohchr.org</u></font></a><font face="Arial">)
</font>
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<br><font face="Arial"><b>The world we want:</b> </font><a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/MDGPost2015Agenda.aspx" target="_blank"><font color="blue" face="Arial"><u>http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/MDG/Pages/MDGPost2015Agenda.aspx</u></font></a>
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