Prioritisation of the protection of economic, social and cultural rights: a sine qua non for achieving a holistic human rights protection

Abstract

The implementation of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) has been a subject of much legal discourse and continues to attract attention, indicating that the last has not been heard about it. The ESCR are substantially provided for in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), a highly comprehensive instrument, solely committed to the implementation and enjoyment of the ESCR at the international level. ESCRs are also protected in parts of other relevant international, regional and municipal instruments. The ICESCR has been ratified and domesticated by many states against suppositions that states might not want to ratify and domesticate it due to the broad and vague terms used in formulating the rights, and the reasoning that its implementation would be costly for States. Using the analysis of the existing conceptual framework research method, this article argued that ESCRs are not in any way less important than the CPRs. It considered the background of ESCR from the history of international human rights, the common genesis of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the ICESCR. It discussed the similarities and differences between the two key instruments, and found that, although states generally still accord more priority to the protection of the rights in the ICCPR within the context of municipal laws, the two sets of rights are interdependent, interrelated, and indivisible. The article concluded that the two sets of rights are equally important and the implementation of the ESCR is a sine qua non for a meaningful realisation of the civil and political rights (CPR). It recommended that the two sets of rights should be accorded equal importance in all ramifications for a holistic protection of human rights.