In the past 15 years interest in promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights has grown. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, Governments and the judiciary are paying increasing attention to the protection of these rights in their programmes, policies and case law, and highlighting the need to respect them as a key to ensuring greater overall enjoyment of human rights. The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raises the hope of a renaissance for the protection of these rights, both nationally and internationally. This is timely, particularly given that the denial of economic, social and cultural rights continues and is even intensifying, in wealthy and poor countries alike. The relative neglect of these rights on the human rights agenda has, unfortunately, fostered a host of misunderstandings and misconceptions about them. And while many of the reasons for this neglect—cold war tensions, academic neglect, lack of clarity on substance, lack of civil society engagement—have disappeared, many of the misunderstandings persist. This Fact Sheet therefore seeks to demystify economic, social and cultural rights, and answer some of the most common questions put to practitioners. While it assumes a certain basic knowledge about human rights, it should be useful for a wider public. The publication of a separate fact sheet on economic, social and cultural rights should not, however, give the impression that they are somehow a distinct category of rights that can be dealt with in isolation. On the contrary, strengthening the protection of economic, social and cultural rights is an integral part of strengthening the protection of all the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dispelling the myths specifically surrounding economic, social and cultural rights is crucial to dismantling unworkable categorizations of rights as we move towards a human rights agenda that treats civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights as truly universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.

Frequently Asked Questions on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Resource Key: ET944BRC

Document Type: Report

Creator:

Author:

  • United Nations

Creators Name: {mb_resource_zotero_creatorsname}

Place: New York, Geneva

Institution: United Nations

Date: 2014

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In the past 15 years interest in promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights has grown. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia, Governments and the judiciary are paying increasing attention to the protection of these rights in their programmes, policies and case law, and highlighting the need to respect them as a key to ensuring greater overall enjoyment of human rights. The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights raises the hope of a renaissance for the protection of these rights, both nationally and internationally. This is timely, particularly given that the denial of economic, social and cultural rights continues and is even intensifying, in wealthy and poor countries alike. The relative neglect of these rights on the human rights agenda has, unfortunately, fostered a host of misunderstandings and misconceptions about them. And while many of the reasons for this neglect—cold war tensions, academic neglect, lack of clarity on substance, lack of civil society engagement—have disappeared, many of the misunderstandings persist. This Fact Sheet therefore seeks to demystify economic, social and cultural rights, and answer some of the most common questions put to practitioners. While it assumes a certain basic knowledge about human rights, it should be useful for a wider public. The publication of a separate fact sheet on economic, social and cultural rights should not, however, give the impression that they are somehow a distinct category of rights that can be dealt with in isolation. On the contrary, strengthening the protection of economic, social and cultural rights is an integral part of strengthening the protection of all the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Dispelling the myths specifically surrounding economic, social and cultural rights is crucial to dismantling unworkable categorizations of rights as we move towards a human rights agenda that treats civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights as truly universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.

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