OBLIGATIONS OF STATE PARTIES TO THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS: A LEGAL REVIEW
Keywords:
OBLIGATIONS, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, LEGALAbstract
On 16 December 1966, the United Nations General Assembly adopted International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)i . As one of three international treaties which constitute the “International Human Rights Bill”ii , along with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights offers a robustinternational structure for the protection and preservation of the most fundamental economic, social and cultural rights (also known as “ESC Rights”), including those rights on employment, physical and mental health, social safety, cultural equality, quality education and scientific advancement. The ICESCRoutlines under Article 2 the scope of the State parties’ legal obligations under the Covenant, and how the implementation of substantive rights can be addressed by the States parties (i.e. countries). States Parties are expected to take action, based on their available resources, to progressively achieve the full implementation of the ESC rights provided under the ICESCR. In that respect, the covenant requires countries to completely implement the ICESCR, either by ratifying the instrument or by domesticating the rights under the covenant in the national laws of the countries.
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