3.8 NHRIs and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
NHRIs have a responsibility to promote all rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, and this responsibility spans promotion and protection. Since this is one of the more difficult areas of human rights protection, it merits particular attention for UNCT staff seeking to support NHRIs.
Making ESC rights a reality can present significant challenges in practice for NHRIs. First, not all NHRIs clearly have ESC rights in their jurisdiction, and even if they do, it is not always easy to tackle these complex rights that may require long term approaches and “positive” State action, usually in the area of program development and spending.
Legal standards are set out in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and in many other human rights instruments that are relevant to this area, such as the Optional Protocol of the ICESCR (See Chapter 1, and Annexes).
CESR General Comment No. 10 (par. 4) sets out the roles that NHRIs play in protecting and promoting these rights:
- Promoting educational and information programs designed to enhance awareness and understanding of ESC rights, both within the general public and among particular groups, such as the public service, the judiciary, the private sector and the labour movement;
- Scrutinising existing laws, administrative acts, draft bills, and other proposals to ensure that they are consistent with the requirements of the ICESCR;
- Providing technical advice or undertaking surveys in relation to ESC rights;
- Identifying national benchmarks for measuring the progressive realisation of ESC rights;
- Conducting research and inquiries to ascertain the extent of realisation of particular ESC rights, at the national level, or in relation to specific vulnerable communities.
NHRIs can have a role in activities in this regard, including: advocacy and awareness-raising, training and capacity-building, partnership-building, practice development and knowledge networking. Opportunities for integrating human rights with human development occur in all UNDP areas of practice and throughout the programme cycle. Some of these opportunities are discussed in the next sections.