This is a guest piece by Rosalind Mc Kenna, from Amnesty - an organisation which campaigns for the protection of the fundamental human rights guaranteed to each one of us by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Rosalind's guest contribution provides a brief on the coming in to force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which Amnesty and a number of organisations have been working on in recent years.
People who have their economic, social and cultural rights routinely undermined are set to gain a fresh route to justice via the UN – but once in force it will only immediately apply to citizens of 10 nations.
On 5 February, Uruguay became the 10th state to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, triggering the coming into force of the individual complaints mechanism in three months time, i.e. 5th May 2013. At this point the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can start hearing complaints from individuals and groups from the ten countries that have ratified to date. Another 32 countries have signed the Protocol, with various ratification processes underway.
The new complaints mechanism will allow individuals and groups to seek justice from the UN if their rights to adequate housing, food, water, sanitation, health, work, social security and education are violated and their government fails to provide justice. Complaints will be heard in front of an independent, international panel of experts once all domestic options have been exhausted.
Domestic social justice and international development organisations in Ireland have been campaigning on this issue for a number of years and on 23 March 2012, Ireland signed the Optional Protocol. Ireland is still to ratify the Protocol, which would allow people here to take complaints, in the coming years. This work on Irish ratification will be greatly assisted by the Protocol being in force and capable of receiving complaints. Amnesty International is calling on Ireland to set out the steps required for Irish ratification, and the timetable for these, at the earliest opportunity.
The Protocol was adopted by the UN General Assembly by consensus on 10 December 2008 and was opened for ratification on 24 September 2009. Thirty two other countries have signed the Protocol, indicating their intention to ratify, but ratification is necessary to make the Protocol legally binding.
Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Uruguay have ratified the Optional Protocol. The 32 other countries who have signed the Optional Protocol and need to ratify it are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chile, Congo, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Finland, France, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Maldives, Mali, Montenegro, Netherlands, Paraguay, Senegal, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Togo, Ukraine and Venezuela.
For more information or to get involved in this work, contact Rosalind McKenna on rmckenna@amnesty.ie