Entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Statement at a reception hosted by Mr. Luís Brites Pereira, Portugal’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, by Ms. Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

28 February, 2013

Excellencies,
Distinguished delegates
Ladies and gentlemen,

I am particularly glad to address you today at this celebration of the tenth ratification of the Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. As you know, as a result of this tenth ratification, the Optional Protocol will become operational in May 2013. The entry into force of the Optional Protocol this year is a veritable milestone in the international human rights system, and I would like to acknowledge the key role that Portugal has played since 2002, not least in most ably chairing and facilitating the negotiations of this new human rights instrument.

On this landmark occasion, I believe it would be appropriate to list the countries that have ratified it to date, in their chronological order:

Ecuador, Mongolia, and Spain in 2010; El Salvador and Argentina in 2011; Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovakia in 2012; and, so far this year, Portugal and Uruguay.

Moreover, an additional 32 countries have signed the Optional Protocol and thereby indicated their intent to ratify this important human rights instrument.

The economic, social and cultural rights of every human being include the rights to work, health, education, food, water, sanitation, housing and social security, as well as the right to take part in cultural life, amongst others. These rights are intrinsically linked with other human rights and are essential for a life of dignity, security and freedom. The imminent adoption of the Optional Protocol is a mark of the progress that is underway, which gives substance to the commitments made 20 years ago at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights. As States underlined then, “All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated,” and must be treated “on the same footing and with the same emphasis.”

The fact that the Optional Protocol of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can soon become operational is an occasion for both solemnity and joy. It will enable victims to seek justice for violations of their economic, social and cultural rights at the international level, by submitting individual communications to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or requests for inquiry into grave or systematic violations. This will provide an important route to justice, and will help develop jurisprudence to further guide governments, both in their understanding of the economic, social and cultural rights of all citizens and in devising adequate remedies for those whose rights have been violated.

I encourage the authorities of Portugal and all States — as well as civil society —to join my Office in advocating much broader global ratification of this important instrument, in order to ensure the widest possible protection of economic, social and cultural rights for all people.

Thank you.