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Introduction

"The last 25 years have seen the most dramatic reduction in extreme poverty the world has ever experienced. Yet dozens of countries have become poorer. More than a billion people still live on less than a dollar a day. Each year, 3 million people die from HIV/AIDS and 11 million children die before reaching their fifth birthday."
Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General¹

Across the world, 840 million people are chronically malnourished.² Nearly 11 million children die before the age of five each year.³ Over 100 million (more than half of whom are girls) do not have access even to primary education.⁴ This is not just an unfortunate reality of life. It is a human rights scandal of shocking proportions. There is therefore a responsibility to respond – a responsibility rooted not only in the demands of human decency, but also in legally binding international human rights obligations.

Gross economic and social inequality is an enduring reality in countries of all political colours, and all levels of development. In the midst of plenty, many are still unable to access even minimum levels of food, water, education, health care and housing. This is not only the result of a lack of resources, but also unwillingness, negligence and discrimination by governments and others. Many groups are specifically targeted because of who they are; those on the margins of society are often overlooked altogether.

The full realization of economic, social and cultural rights – including rights to food, housing, health, education and work – requires significant human, economic, technological and other resources. Yet limited resources are not the principal cause of widespread violations of economic, social and cultural rights, and cannot be used as an excuse to deny specific individuals and groups these rights. Ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, women, members of opposition or religious groups, people living with HIV/AIDS or mental disabilities and many others risk deprivation as a result of discrimination and injustice.

Even wealthy and powerful governments have manifestly failed to meet their obligations to end hunger and preventable disease, and to eliminate illiteracy and homelessness in their own countries as well as internationally. Despite expressions of concern and statements of good intent, the international community has stood by while individual governments have disregarded the human rights of millions of people.

Denied farmland, seed grain
and food aid in Zimbabwe

CK is 70 years old. She lives on a former large-scale commercial farm, where she has lived and worked all her life. When she retired, the farmer gave her a small piece of land for her food needs on the edge of the farm and a small stipend to support herself and her husband in their old age. Between 2000 and 2003 all of CK's children and their partners died of AIDS, leaving 12 grandchildren aged between three and 16 in her care. In 2003 the farm was acquired for resettlement and the farmer was forced to leave. The farm was subdivided and plots allocated to new farmers, including the land previously used by the farm workers. CK and the other farm workers could stay in their houses, but none was allocated a plot. CK now cannot grow food for her family. She was refused entry to the government's "food for work" programme or an allocation of maize from the government controlled Grain Marketing Board.

The government of Zimbabwe has failed to ensure food security during its "fast-tracked" land reform programme, which was ostensibly launched to address the massive inequality in land ownership. It redistributed large areas of previously productive land without ensuring that new occupiers had the seeds, fertilizer, tools or intention to grow crops. Together with the drought that afflicted southern Africa, this led to a huge reduction in available food. Food scarcity was exacerbated by the government's refusal of international humanitarian food relief and its use of hunger for political gain. Those considered opposition sympathizers faced significant obstacles in obtaining food through government operated distribution services.

Among groups most affected by the food crisis were farm workers who continued to live on expropriated land and often had no security of tenure. Not only did the government overlook them, but they were also occasionally excluded from humanitarian assistance, as some international donors were apparently keen not to be seen to condone land occupation.⁵

Governments keen to encourage investment have often failed to ensure that big business respects its human rights responsibilities. They have exposed the population to danger through pollution, and to exploitation through denial of the right to a fair wage and decent working conditions. Acting alone or through international financial institutions, governments have often disregarded the rights of people elsewhere, supporting large-scale development projects which have resulted in widespread homelessness and violation of indigenous peoples' rights.

Violations of economic, social and cultural rights are not just a matter of inadequate resources; they are a matter of policy.⁶

Human rights are indivisible – all rights are of equal value and cannot be separated. Violations of economic, social and cultural rights – such as failure to protect the land rights of indigenous peoples, denying minorities' education rights and inequitable provision of health care – are often linked with civil and political rights violations in patterns of denial. No human right can be realized in isolation from other rights. Just as full enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression requires concerted efforts to realize the right to education, so the right to life requires steps to reduce infant mortality, epidemics and malnutrition.⁷

"The arbitrary deprivation of life is not limited to the illicit act of homicide; it extends itself to the deprivation of the right to live with dignity. This outlook conceptualizes the right to life as belonging, at the same time, to the domain of civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights, thus illustrating the interrelation and indivisibility of all human rights."
Antônio Cançado Trinidade, President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights⁸

In adopting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the international community recognized that human beings can only achieve freedom from fear and want, as well as freedom of speech and belief, if conditions are created whereby all people can enjoy all human rights. Despite this commitment to the indivisibility of human rights, international attention has largely concentrated on certain violations of civil and political rights such as torture and ill-treatment, extrajudicial killings, "disappearances" and abuses of the right to fair trial. For more than 40 years, Amnesty International has played a leading role in putting these issues on the international agenda.

Since the end of the Cold War, however, the persistent denial of economic, social and cultural rights has raised increasing international concern. In all states, excluded or marginalized people still face barriers to realizing even minimum levels of their economic, social and cultural rights. Given this reality, campaigners are increasingly pointing to the imperative to recognize and combat such obstacles as human rights issues.

In recent years Amnesty International has broadened its mission in recognition that there are many more prisoners of poverty than prisoners of conscience, and that millions endure the torture of hunger and slow death from preventable disease. Given the interconnected nature of all human rights violations, engaging with economic, social and cultural rights has enabled Amnesty International to address complex human rights problems in a more holistic and comprehensive manner. For example, Amnesty International's long-standing work on abuses in the Israeli-Occupied Territories has more recently addressed the impact of curfews and closures on the right to work and the right to health of the Palestinian population.

Denial of rights in the
Israeli-Occupied Territories

In the Occupied Territories, restrictions on movement imposed by the Israeli army have frustrated the efforts of Palestinian farmers to grow and sell crops, and have denied Palestinians access to jobs and to health and education facilities. Blockades and other restrictions – including a 600 kilometre fence/wall under construction since 2002 – are imposed to keep Palestinians away from Israeli settlements and roads used by Israeli settlers. These settlements are illegal under international law and have deprived the local Palestinian population of water, land and other key resources.⁹

Women have been forced to give birth at checkpoints, sometimes with fatal consequences, because of their limited access to emergency medical care. Rula Ashtiya was forced to give birth on a dirt road by the Beit Furik checkpoint, in the West Bank, after Israeli soldiers refused her passage from her village to the nearby town of Nablus.

"We took a taxi and got off before the checkpoint because cars are not allowed near the checkpoint and we walked the rest of the way; I was in pain. At the checkpoint there were several soldiers; they were drinking coffee or tea and ignored us. Daoud approached to speak to the soldiers and one of them threatened him with his weapon... I was lying on the ground in the dust and I crawled behind a concrete block by the checkpoint to have some privacy and gave birth there, in the dust, like an animal. I held the baby in my arms and she moved a little but after a few minutes she died in my arms."¹⁰

Campaigners around the world have mobilized since the mid-1980s in international networks to advance economic, social and cultural rights, sharing skills and experience learned over many years and in all parts of the world. Their efforts have led to improvements for certain individuals who have been targeted for abuse, recognition of the particular barriers faced by some groups within society, and greater awareness of the importance of these rights to the achievement of human dignity.

Economic, social and cultural rights are not mere aspirations, or goals to be achieved progressively over time. Under international law, states have immediate obligations, as well as longer-term duties. Regardless of their stage of development, states must take action to fulfil economic, social and cultural rights (including reviewing their laws and policies), and must refrain from violating these rights. States must ensure that there is no discrimination, whether direct or indirect, in the realization of these rights. Governments must also regulate the behaviour of private individuals, businesses and other non-state actors to ensure that they respect human rights.

"The dignity of an individual cannot and should not be divided into two spheres – that of civil and political and that of economic, social and cultural. The individual must be able to enjoy freedom from want as well as freedom from fear. The ultimate goal of ensuring respect for the dignity of an individual cannot be achieved without that person's enjoying all of his or her rights."
Circle of Rights: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Activism: A Training Resource¹¹

As Amnesty International joins local communities and activists worldwide in campaigning for economic, social and cultural rights, this primer outlines some of the key features of these rights. It presents an overview of economic, social and cultural rights, outlines their scope and content, and gives examples of violations and what can be done to address them.

Amnesty International is convinced of the indivisibility of human rights, and the importance of campaigning to secure respect, protection and fulfilment of all human rights for all people. This primer highlights not only the obligations of governments within their own countries but also their international obligations, and the human rights responsibilities of a wider orbit of actors including international organizations and corporations.

As the international community has repeatedly recognized, all human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.¹² Human dignity requires respect for all human rights of all people: there can be no higher priority than the right to live with dignity.

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Endnotes

1 Annan, K., In Larger Freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all, UN Doc. A/59/2005, 2005.
2 Food and Agriculture Organization, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2003.
3 World Health Organization, WHO and the Millennium Development Goals, Fact sheet No. 290, May 2005, www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs290/en/index.html
4 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, 2005, The Quality Imperative, UNESCO, www.efareport.unesco.org
5 Amnesty International, Zimbabwe: Power and hunger – Violations of the right to food (AI Index: AFR 46/026/2004).
6 Tomaševski, K., "Unasked questions about economic, social and cultural rights from the experience of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education (1998-2004)", Human Rights Quarterly 27 (2005) 713.
7 The Human Rights Committee recognized this aspect of the right to life in General Comment 6, The right to life, para 5.
8 Villagrán Morales and others (street children case), decision of 19 November 1999, Series C, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Opinion of Judges Cançado Trinidade and Abreu-Burelli.
9 Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Surviving under siege – the impact of movement restrictions on the right to work (AI Index: MDE 15/001/2003); The issue of settlements must be addressed according to international law (AI Index: MDE 15/085/2003); The place of the fence/wall in international law (AI Index: MDE 15/016/2004); and Conflict, occupation and patriarchy – women carry the burden
(AI Index: MDE 15/016/2005).
10 Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories: Conflict, occupation and patriarchy – women carry the burden (AI Index: MDE 15/016/2005).
11 International Human Rights Internship Program and Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, 2000, p. 13.
12 Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, UN Doc. A/CONF.157/23, 12 July 1993.

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