On 13 March 2008, the Centre wrote to the Attorney General, the Hon Rob McClelland MP, calling on the Australian Government to strongly support the negotiation and adoption of an effective, comprehensive complaints and inquiries mechanism for the ICESCR. Click here for a copy of the letter.
The UN Working Group on the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is meeting in Geneva from 31 March to 4 April 2008 to further negotiate the text of this draft instrument. The Working Group is aiming to finalise negotiation of the text by December 2008 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The OP to ICESCR, in its present draft form, would provide individuals and groups with a means to seek and obtain a remedy for violations of their economic, social and cultural rights at the international level, where they are denied one domestically. The Centre is concerned about proposals, however, for an ‘à la carte’ approach to rights protection under the OP to ICESCR pursuant to which governments could pick and choose which rights would be justiciable. The Centre urged the Australian government to reject such a proposal. An ‘à la carte’ approach would significantly diminish the universality of human rights and undermine the principle of equal recognition and effective protection of economic, social and cultural rights.
