from Right to Food, 30-09-2009

  The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: one more step towards the justiciability of the Right to Food

Last Friday, a new mechanism that will enable individuals to bring concrete cases of violations of the right to food before the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights –as part of its monitoring mandate – was open for signature.

During the 2009 Treaty Event held on 24 September at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights officially opened for signature and has been signed –till today– by 29 among the 160 State Parties to the Covenant.

Recently adopted on the 10th December 2008 by the UN General Assembly, the Optional Protocol confers competence to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Committee) to receive and consider communications from or on behalf of individuals or groups of individuals concerning alleged violations of any of the rights set forth in the Covenant. It also permits the Committee to conduct inquiries into grave and systematic violations of any of the economic, social and cultural rights – including the right to food– by a Party that has made a declaration recognizing this competence of the Committee.

The adoption of this instrument constitutes a milestone for the justiciability of the right to food since, once the Optional Protocol is ratified; the individuals living in those countries will have direct access to a quasi judicial system that was missing at international level. This new procedure puts economic, social and cultural rights at the same level as civil and political rights, for which such a procedure exists since 1966, thus acknowledging in the practice that all Human Rights are interdependent, indivisible, and interrelated. The value added of this mechanism is that it will provide States with specific recommendations to redress violations in concrete cases and thus, will ensure the progressive fulfilment of the right to food. It will also bring up visibility to the victims and will strengthen transparency and accountability at national level.

In addition to the signature, the Optional Protocol is subject to ratification. It shall enter into force three months after the date of the Deposit with the UN Secretary General of the 10th instrument of ratification or accession.

The text of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR in all UN official languages, is available at:
- http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CTC/Ch_IV_3_a.pdf

To see which countries have already signed, please visit:
- http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=IV-3-a&chapter=4&lang=en