“MANDATE AND ACTIVITIES OF THE COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (CESCR)”

“…the right to live a dignified life can never be attained unless all basic necessities of life – work, food, housing, health care, education and culture – are adequately and equitably available to everyone1”

CRISTINA MEJÍA OCAMPO

MASTER 2 HUMAN RIGHTS HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRES & INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

INSTITUTE DES HAUTES ETUDES EUROPÉENNES Strasbourg - 2011

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Fact Sheet No.16 (Rev.1), CESCR

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INTRODUCTION Different nations and individuals worldwide are currently facing alarming levels of deprivation that are against the right to live with dignity. According to the UNDP: "a fifth of the developing world's population goes hungry every night, a quarter lacks access to even a basic necessity like safe drinking-water, and a third lives in a state of abject poverty at such a margin of human existence that words simply fail to describe it2". Problems such as misery, unemployment, hunger, diseases, illiteracy, among others, have been directly influenced by global changes and constitute serious violations of social, economic and cultural rights.

These rights have historically received less attention in relation to civil and political rights. Despite of the repetitive efforts of the international community to give both of them an equal status and to maintain a coherent system of law, they have suffered from a second-class status regarding mechanisms of enforcement. Besides, public policies and practices have not been yet substantially modified by each nation to keep up with legal evolution. Such situation had led the international community to intervene and to make additional efforts in order to enforce the law on states parties. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) represents the most important international legal framework for protecting these basic human rights, as well as it Optional Protocol, which aims to strength