Back from a short (Orthodox) holiday I resume my efforts to keep you abreast of developments relevant to Human Rights Defenders. The first item is that the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has finally come into force. It enables people to seek justice through individual complaints when their rights to, for example, food, adequate housing, education or health are violated. “Egregious violations of economic, social and cultural rights are occurring, often unnoticed, on a daily basis, which in the area of civil and political rights would have been immediately condemned. This Protocol will help to address this imbalance,” High Commissioner Navi Pillay said.
The Optional Protocol allows the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – the body of UN independent experts that monitors the International Covenant to which the Protocol is attached – to examine complaints from individuals or groups of individuals who have exhausted all attempts to find justice in their own country. It also enables the Committee to conduct inquiries if it receives reliable information indicating grave or systematic violations by a State party of any of the rights covered by the Covenant. The Protocol took effect on 5 May, three months after Uruguay became the required tenth country to ratify it and joined Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain. Only individuals from countries who have ratified the Protocol can bring complaints to the Committee.
links:
- Full text of the Optional Protocol
- Full text of the provisional rules of procedure under the Optional Protocol
via Pillay Hails New Mechanism In Protection of Rights.
Leave a Reply