UN High Commissioner for Human Rights welcomes the upcoming entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the UN Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights

On 6 February 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navy Pillay, greets the upcoming entering into force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which will enable individuals to file complaints on economic, social and cultural rights alleged violations.

The Optional Protocol to the ICESCR, adopted in 2008 by the UN General Assembly, gives the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - the body which monitors the International Covenant - the competence to examine complaints from individuals or groups of individuals who claim their rights under the Covenant have been violated. The Optional Protocol also enable the Committee to seek information and make recommendations to a State Party as well as to conduct inquiries if it receives reliable information indicating grave or systematic violations.

The Protocol will enter into force on 5 May and “will also finally help place economic, social and cultural rights on an equal footing with all other human rights,” Pillay said.

Still, the Optional Protocol has been ratified only by 10 States (Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Uruguay, the last signatory state) among the 160 that are already party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights