A primer on economic, social and cultural rights

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2. Economic, social and cultural rights in focus


"There is no water-tight division between civil and political and economic, social and cultural rights".
European Court of Human Rights30

In many ways an arbitrary classification, the term "economic, social and cultural rights" covers a range of human rights, from rights to education, adequate housing, health, food and water, to the right to work and rights at work, as well as the cultural rights of minorities and indigenous peoples. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights did not divide rights into clusters of civil and political on the one hand and economic, social and cultural on the other, and for good reason. Some rights, including those of freedom of association and labour rights, are found in both international Covenants. Others, such as the right to education, include aspects that are traditionally perceived as civil rights and others as social rights. An outline of some of those rights generally classified as economic, social and cultural is presented here.

Cultural rights

Culture – the context of individuals’ lives in their communities – can affect all aspects of human life from housing, food, the relationship with land and the natural environment, health care, religion, education and the arts. Related rights, such as the right to adequate food and to education, require that food and education policies be culturally appropriate.31 Determining cultural appropriateness is complicated as "cultures" are never monolithic. Genuine opportunities for participation of minorities and indigenous peoples in particular, through respect for freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to take part in political life, are thus a central element of respect for cultural rights.32

Cultural rights are protected in international standards in a diffuse way. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights protects the right to participate in cultural life and to enjoy the benefits of science and culture. It outlines the duty of the state to preserve, develop and disseminate science and culture. More concrete provisions are found in international law relating to indigenous peoples (see Chapter 6) and in minority rights standards and those relating to the elimination of racial discrimination. Individuals and groups defending cultural rights internationally most often rely on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 27) which protects the rights of members of minorities, in community with others, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, and to use their own language.33

Protecting the cultural rights of groups, communities and peoples must be balanced with the rights of individuals. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which obliges members to promote and protect "morals and traditional values recognised by the community", has been applied to differentiate "positive" from "negative" cultural practices. Some, such as those that clearly subordinate women, may be in breach of other provisions of the African Charter. The Arab Charter on Human Rights requires that the measures adopted by state parties to achieve the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health include "suppression of traditional practices which are harmful to the health of the individual".34

International standards to protect children’s rights specifically oblige states to take steps to eliminate traditional or cultural practices harmful to children.35

The right to adequate food

There is more than enough food produced in the world to feed everyone, and yet hundreds of millions are chronically malnourished.36 To comply with obligations related to the right to adequate food,37 states must immediately tackle hunger and progressively ensure that "every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement".38

Obligations to realize the right to food require the state to ensure:

As the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights found, in a case involving abuses surrounding oil exploration in Ogoniland, Nigeria:

"The African Charter and international law require and bind [states] to protect and improve existing food sources and to ensure access to adequate food for all… [Among other requirements] the right to food requires that the [government] should not destroy or contaminate food sources. It should not allow private parties to destroy or contaminate food sources, and prevent peoples’ efforts to feed themselves."41

Starvation as punishment in North Korea

"We were given corn-rice in small quantities. At times we got only salt soup with cabbage leaves. No meat was served. We were always hungry, and resorted to eating grass in spring. Three or four people died of malnutrition. When someone died, fellow prisoners delayed reporting his death to the authorities so that they could eat his allocated breakfast."

Kim spent four years in a penal labour colony for political prisoners at Yodok in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) after being repatriated from China and charged with treason. Hundreds of thousands of people died and many millions suffered chronic malnutrition in a famine in North Korea exacerbated by the actions of the authorities. The government prevented swift and equitable distribution of food aid, and prohibited the freedom of movement that would have allowed people to go in search of food.42 Refugees forcibly returned to North Korea are routinely jailed and subjected to degrading treatment, including being seriously deprived of food.


One of the most basic obligations under the right to food is the duty on states not to starve those within their control, such as prisoners. As the UN Human Rights Committee has established, when the state arrests and detains individuals, it takes on direct responsibility to care for their lives, for example to provide adequate medical treatment, living conditions and food.43 Human rights standards also speak to gender-specific aspects of the right to food, requiring states to meet the needs of women during pregnancy, confinement and after giving birth.44

The right to adequate housing

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has noted that more than one billion people worldwide lack adequate housing and that over 100 million are homeless.45 "Without adequate housing, employment is difficult to secure and maintain, physical and mental health is threatened, education is impeded, violence is more easily perpetrated, privacy is impaired and relationships are strained."46 Under the right to adequate housing, everyone should have a degree of security of tenure, protecting them from forced eviction, harassment and other threats. Services available should include safe drinking water, sanitation and energy. Housing should be accessible to all, including the poor, and priority should be given to the most vulnerable. According to international standards, states should take steps to ensure that housing is located in safe areas, away from military sites, dangerous emissions or pollution; is near transport links and employment opportunities; and respects cultural rights.

Forced evictions and housing rights in Angola

Between 2001 and 2003, an estimated 5,500 families were evicted from their homes in the informal urban settlements, or musséques, around Luanda, Angola’s capital. Most of the musséque dwellers had sought safety in the city during the 27-year conflict, and built homes wherever they could find space. The government made no attempt to regulate house building or to provide amenities. From the late 1990s, Angola’s oil boom created a demand for land. The musséque dwellers, who had no security of tenure, were vulnerable to developers.

In 2001 families in Boavista, an area near a cliff, were told that they were being evicted to save them from landslides. No attempt was made to secure the cliff or to hold meaningful consultations with residents. Instead, more than 4,000 families were moved to an area 40 kilometres away. There they lived in rotting tents for over two years while homes were built for them.

Residents of Soba Kapassa tried hard to obtain security of tenure, and carefully planned the roads and houses. Discussions with the authorities faltered, and in December 2002 residents were surprised by police and soldiers who surrounded the area while a demolition squad bulldozed houses. Altogether, 1,167 houses were destroyed. None of the Soba Kapassa residents was rehoused or otherwise compensated.

Over 470 houses were demolished in Benfica Commune between 2001 and 2003, again without meaningful consultations or prior notice. Most of those evicted were settled in new houses, some of which already had large lateral cracks in the walls, and in an area without schools or health facilities.

Forced evictions, whereby people are removed involuntarily from their homes without legal protection or the assurance of alternative accommodation, are a gross violation of a range of human rights.47 They often leave people at risk of damage to their health, unemployment and sexual abuse, and children unable to continue with their education. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has clarified that human rights law requires that people be ensured the greatest possible security of tenure, and that strict controls be placed on the circumstances in which evictions can take place.48

The right to education

The right to education encompasses the right to free and compulsory primary education, and increasing access to secondary, technical, vocational and higher education.49 It cuts across the false divide between human rights, as it has civil, cultural, economic, political and social elements. Realizing people’s right to education reduces their vulnerability to child labour, early marriage, discrimination and many other human rights abuses. It also increases their opportunities to realize other human rights, including the right to health and the right to participate in public affairs.50

The right to education of minorities: Croatia

Within Europe, Romani communities face particularly widespread and grave violations of a compass of human rights, including the right to education.51 Estimates suggest that up to a third of all Romani children in Croatia are completely excluded from the school system. Often Romani children who attend primary schools are in separate classes, where they are taught a reduced curriculum. The Croatian authorities seem willing to accommodate the demands of parents of non-Romani children that Roma be taught separately. Romani parents have pursued claims of segregation and discrimination through the Croatian court system and to the European Court of Human Rights. The lower Croatian courts rejected their complaints on the grounds that Romani children had inadequate knowledge of the Croatian language. A complaint that such segregation was unconstitutional, filed before the Croatian Constitutional Court in December 2002, was still pending in mid-2005.

In October 2003 the Croatian government adopted a National Program for Roma which, if implemented, may be a first step towards greater integration of members of Romani communities in Croatian schools and in Croatian society in general. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has pointed to the importance of ensuring this programme is properly resourced, in order to respect the right to education of Croatian Roma.52

States must ensure free and compulsory primary education as a matter of priority, and freedom of education (the right of parents to ensure education in conformity with their religious and philosophical convictions). To accord with human rights obligations, governments must ensure that education is adequately available; accessible (financially as well as physically); acceptable (it should respect cultural rights and the human rights of learners); and adaptable.

Minimum core elements of the right to education include prioritizing free and compulsory primary education for all children, and ensuring that educational content accords with human rights principles. This includes fostering diversity and understanding, rather than segregation and prejudice.

The right to health

The right to health is the right to the "highest attainable standard of physical and mental health" given the individual’s genetic make-up and lifestyle choices, as well as the extent of scientific understanding and the maximum of resources available to the state. It encompasses freedoms (such as the right to control one’s health and body) and entitlements (for example, to equality of access to health care), and consists of two basic components: healthy living conditions and health care.53

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has adopted a broad conception of the right to health, recognizing it as:

"an inclusive right extending not only to timely and appropriate health care but also to the underlying determinants of health, such as access to safe and potable water and adequate sanitation, an adequate supply of safe food, nutrition and housing, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and access to health-related education and information, including on sexual and reproductive health. A further important aspect is the participation of the population in all health-related decision-making at the community, national and international levels."54

To guide interpretation of the obligations under the right to health, the Committee outlined the following elements:55

Potential violations of the right to health include:

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Special Rapporteur on the right to health) has enhanced understanding of the right to health, including sexual and reproductive health, and mental health. According to the Special Rapporteur’s most recent annual report, while about 450 million people suffer from some form of mental disorder, over 90 per cent of countries have no mental health policy for children.58 More than 40 per cent of countries have no mental health policy at all.59 The report examines how people with mental health disorders are often denied equality in realizing numerous human rights, including rights to education, work, privacy, housing and liberty.

The Special Rapporteur has also explored the relationship between the right to health and the agenda of the World Trade Organization. Many free trade agreements restrict the production of generic medicines and greatly extend patent protections, and are likely to result in more expensive medicines that are less accessible to the poor without effective state subsidies.

The resulting conflict between states’ human rights obligations to ensure that essential medicines are available to all, and the ratification of these trade agreements, has led to pressure for a public health exception to international patent protection rules. This exception is however frequently not replicated in regional or bilateral agreements.60

The right to water

In 2000 the World Health Organization estimated that 1.1 billion people did not have access to a water supply capable of providing them with the safe drinking water necessary for a life with dignity.62 Lack of safe water is a cause of serious illnesses such as diarrhoeal diseases, which kill over 2 million people every year (the vast majority children, mostly in developing countries).63

Contamination and corporate
accountability in India

The chemical plant explosion in Bhopal, India, in 1984 left thousands of people dead, many more ill, and pollution that continues to contaminate the air and fresh water supplies. "When you look at the water, you can see a thin layer of oil on it. All the pots in my house have become discoloured… We have to travel at least two kilometres to get clean water – to Chola Nakka. My health is so bad that it prevents me from carrying the water I need from there." Hasina Bi of Atal Ayub Nagar, a neighbourhood in Bhopal near the plant, has been drinking the water from the hand-pump near her house for 18 years.

Faujia, a 15-year-old girl, complained that "water is red here and it smells… like there is some medicine in it". Munni Bi said the water "is bitter… difficult to swallow." Their families live in Annu Nagar, an area in Bhopal, and the government freshwater tankers rarely, if ever, enter their neighbourhoods.61

The chemical plant was operated by Union Carbide India Limited, under the effective control of Union Carbide Chemical Corporation, a company based in the USA that has since been taken over by Dow Chemical Company. International human rights law places obligations on states, including India, to protect the population from human rights impacts of negligent company practice. Companies too have responsibilities to comply with human rights standards. Amnesty International is committed to working for corporate accountability for abuses of human rights, and has campaigned for the governments of India and of the USA (where Dow Chemical Company has its international headquarters) to comply with their international obligations to ensure that human rights are protected from corporate abuse.

The right to water is increasingly recognized in international and regional human rights instruments, as well as in national constitutions.64 Access to sufficient clean water and sanitation is essential to realize the right to health, to food and to secure livelihoods (for example, in food production). The right to water, like the right to food, has recently been interpreted to include securing sufficient availability, access (both physical and economic) and quality (free from harmful organisms or pollution).

As with other economic, social and cultural rights, priority should be given to the most vulnerable, that is to "those individuals and groups who have traditionally faced difficulties in exercising this right, including women, children, minority groups, indigenous peoples, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, migrant workers, prisoners and detainees."65

The right to work and rights at work

Often derided as the right to a job and an obligation to ensure full employment, the right to work is perhaps the least understood of the economic, social and cultural rights discussed here.66 Nevertheless, the right to work entails at least the right to access to employment without discrimination, free choice of employment, and a supportive structure that aids access to employment, including appropriate vocational education.68

Rights at work, on the other hand, are more detailed. They include the right to fair wages, to equal pay for work of equal value, to safe and healthy working conditions, and to reasonable limitations on working hours, the prohibition of dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy, as well as equality of treatment in employment.

Forced labour in Myanmar (Burma)

"Sometimes I had to work three times a week… Our NaSaKa [security forces] camp is large with 80 NaSaKa men, and 20 of them live in it with their families. There are a lot of houses in it and almost every day they need labour… The rich men can pay to avoid it and those connected to the authorities do not have to go. So the poor have to perform double duty. This is why I had to work up to three times a week. I also used to work as a sentry four times a month. So I did not have much time to work for my family. I could work for myself for about 15 days a month. I do not have any land and it was very difficult to survive."
A 50-year-old man from the Rohingya minority, Myanmar.67

Myanmar has long violated the prohibition of forced labour, among many other human rights violations. An ILO Commission of Inquiry found widespread and systematic abuses. Recent personal testimonies have confirmed reports that the army has deliberately targeted the Rohingya minority and that widespread corruption increases the disproportionate impact of forced labour on the poor.

A particularly egregious violation of the right to free choice of work is forced labour – work exacted through the threat of some form of penalty, whether penal or the loss of rights or privileges.69

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Endnotes

30 Airey v Ireland, (6289/73) [1979] European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) 3, decision of 9 October 1979, para 26.
31 The Committee on the Rights of the Child has indicated that respect for the right to education requires "recognition of the need for a balanced approach to education and one which succeeds in reconciling diverse values through dialogue and respect for difference." General Comment 1, The aims of education, UN Doc. CRC/GC/2001/1, para 4.
32 See also Article 17 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, on women’s "right to a positive cultural context", including their participation in the formulation of cultural policies.
33 See, for example, Communication No. 167/1984, Lubicon Lake Band v Canada, UN Doc. Supp. No. 40 (A/45/40) at 1; and Amnesty International, Canada: "Time is wasting" – Respect for the land rights of the Lubicon Cree long overdue (AI Index: AMR 20/001/2003).
34 Arab Charter on Human Rights, Article 9(4).
35 Article 24(3), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); Article 21, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
36 World Food Programme, Tackling Hunger in a World Full of Food, 1998, section 1.4, at www.wfp.org
37 The right to adequate food: Article 11, ICESCR; Article 24(2)(c), CRC; Article 12, San Salvador Protocol, among others.
38 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 12, The right to adequate food, UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/5, para 6.
39 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 12, The right to adequate food, UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/5, para 36.
40 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 12, The right to adequate food, UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/5, para 8.
41 African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Social and Economic Rights Action Center and Center for Economic and Social Rights v Nigeria, Communication No. 155/96, October 2001.
42 Amnesty International, Starved of rights: Human rights and the food crisis in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) (AI Index: ASA 24/003/2004).
43 Communication No. 763/1997, Ms Yekaterina Pavlovna Lantsova v The Russian Federation, UN Doc. CCPR/C/74/D/763/1997. The ICCPR regulates conditions of all people deprived of their liberty: in prisons, hospitals – particularly psychiatric hospitals, detention camps, correctional institutions or elsewhere (UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 21 on Article 10, para. 2).
44 Article 12.2, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); Article 14.2 (b), Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
45 The right to adequate housing: Article 11, ICESCR; 14(2), CEDAW; 16(1) and 27(3), CRC; 5(e)(iii), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD); 17(1), ICCPR; 8(1), ECHR; 8, 11, 23, American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man, among others. The scope of the right to adequate housing has been clarified in Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 4, The right to adequate housing, UN Doc. E/1992/23, and reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing as a component of the right to a decent standard of living.
46 Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), www.cohre.org
47 UN Commission on Human Rights, Resolution 1993/77, March 1993.
48 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 7, The right to adequate housing, 20 May 1997, Article 11(1) on forced evictions.
49 The right to education: Articles 13-14, ICESCR; 28-29, CRC; 10, CEDAW; 13, San Salvador Protocol; Protocol 1, ECHR; 11, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, among others. The scope of the right to education has been clarified in Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 13, The right to education, UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/10, and reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education.
50 For more information, see the Right to Education Project, www.right-to-education.org
51 Save the Children, Denied a Future – the right to education of Roma/Gypsy and Traveller Children in Europe, London, 2001.
52 Concluding observations: Croatia, UN Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.243, 3 November 2004, at www.unhchr.ch. See also Amnesty International, Briefing to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, 37th session, September 2004 (AI Index: EUR 64/003/2004).
53 The right to health: Article 12, ICESCR; 5 (e) (iv), ICERD; 11.1 (f), CEDAW; 24, CRC; 11, Revised European Social Charter; 16, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; 14, African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; 10, San Salvador Protocol, among others.
54 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 14, The right to health, UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, para 11. The scope of the right to health has also been clarified in the work of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Special Rapporteur on the right to health).
55 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 14, The right to health, UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4.
56 Adapted from Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 14, The right to health, UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, para 12.
57 Chapman, A., "Violations of the Right to Health", in Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, SIM Special No. 20, 1998.
58 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to health, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2005/51.
59 World Health Organization, World Health Report 2001, p. 3.
60 Amnesty International, Guatemala: the Impact of the Free Trade Agreement on human rights should be assessed by Congress (AI Index: AMR 34/010/2005) and Memorandum to the Government of Guatemala (AI Index: AMR 34/014/2005).
61 Amnesty International, India: Clouds of Injustice: Bhopal disaster 20 years on, (AI Index: ASA 20/015/2004).
62 Howard, G. and Bartram, J., Domestic Water Quantity, Service Level and Health, World Health Organization, 2003, p. 1.
63 World Health Organization/OHCHR, The right to water, 2003, p. 6, http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/rtwrev.pdf
64 The right to water: Article 11, ICESCR; 24(2), CRC; 14(2), CEDAW; 14(2), African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, among others. The right to water was recognized as an element of the right to a decent standard of living by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in General Comment 15, The right to water, UN Doc. E/C.12/2002/11.
65 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment 15, The right to water, UN Doc. E/C.12/2002/11, para 16.
66 The right to work and rights at work: Articles 6-8, ICESCR; 11, CEDAW; 5(e)(i), ICERD; 6-7, San Salvador Protocol; 15, 29(6), African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; 1-4 and 8, European Social Charter, among others.
67 Amnesty International, Myanmar: The Rohingya Minority – Fundamental Rights Denied (AI Index: ASA 16/005/2004).
68 A General Comment outlining the scope of the right to work is currently under discussion by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
69 Prohibited in ILO Convention 29 (Article 2(1)). There are several narrow exceptions to this general rule. See also ILO Convention 105.

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