April 1, 2010
The Optional Protocol to the ICESCR: A Victory for Women
By Kasari Govender, Legal Director, West Coast LEAF
Considered: Optional Protocol to buy Cytotec tablets without rx the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Xenical overnight
On December 10, 2008 the UN General Assembly approved an Optional Protocol to buy Cytotec tablets without rx the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR), and buy Cytotec tablets without rx on September 24, 2009, it opened for signature. The OP-ICESCR is buy Cytotec tablets without rx a milestone for enforcing the rights of those living in poverty around the buy Cytotec tablets without rx world; since the World Health Organization has found that women make up almost 70% of the 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty globally (World Health Organization (WHO), The Right to Water (France: WHO, 2003) at 25), economic rights protections such as the buy Cytotec tablets without rx new Optional Protocol have particular relevance for women.
What is the OP-ICESCR?
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights finasteride overnight without rx Zovirax drug (ICESCR) is buy Cytotec tablets without rx an important cornerstone of the triumvirate International Bill of Rights, and buy Cytotec tablets without rx yet throughout its history debates have raged about whether the rights contained therein are buy Cytotec tablets without rx enforceable.
Until now: in the buy Cytotec tablets without rx OP-ICESCR, the General Assembly has approved of an enforceability mechanism for buy Cytotec tablets without rx economic, social and cultural rights. The Optional Protocol provides for buy Cytotec tablets without rx a complaint procedure by which the rights in the ICESCR can buy Cytotec tablets without rx be enforced and infringements remedied. This means that buy Cytotec tablets without rx individuals are able to bring complaints to the committee that their economic, social or buy Cytotec tablets without rx cultural rights have been infringed by a state party. Most other human rights treaties have buy Cytotec tablets without rx a complaint mechanism attached, so the OP-ICESCR is a latecomer, after the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Optional Protocols for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women and buy Cytotec tablets without rx the Convention Against Torture, among others.
Why is it important to women?
The protection of civil and political rights (CP rights) has buy Cytotec tablets without rx faced much less opposition on both the international stage and in the buy Cytotec tablets without rx domestic sphere than the protection of economic, social and cultural rights (ESC rights). There are buy Cytotec tablets without rx two main forms of opposition to the enforcement of ESC rights: firstly, some would argue that buy Cytotec tablets without rx while CP rights are consistent with a capitalist economy and political structure, ESC rights entail a buy Cytotec tablets without rx shift towards a socialist system; and secondly, that ESC rights are buy Cytotec tablets without rx not justiciable for a number of reasons including that they are buy Cytotec tablets without rx too imprecise and immeasurable to be enforced and that judicial enforcement would require an buy Cytotec tablets without rx impermissible encroachment on parliamentary supremacy and the division of powers.
All of these concerns, or buy Cytotec tablets without rx at least the use of these concerns to distinguish between ESC and buy Cytotec tablets without rx CP rights, are largely countered by the following argument: in fact, both sets of rights include three duties: avoid depriving someone of a buy Cytotec tablets without rx necessity, protect them from deprivation and aid them when deprived (in other words, respect, protect and fulfill) (Henry Shue as cited by David Beetham, Democracy and Human Rights (Malden: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1999) at 126). The true distinction is buy Cytotec tablets without rx not between different categories of rights, but between different types of duties necessary to buy Cytotec tablets without rx further their protection. It is impossible for any right, no matter how ‘negative’ it buy Cytotec tablets without rx may seem, to be fully guaranteed unless all three types of duties are buy Cytotec tablets without rx fulfilled. In fact, then, the buy Cytotec tablets without rx different categories of rights are not accurately aligned to a particular economy, nor does one require more judicial activism than buy Cytotec tablets without rx another; rather, the fulfillment of all rights requires considerable court enforced state involvement, control and buy Cytotec tablets without rx expenditure.
The privileging of civil and buy Cytotec tablets without rx political rights over economic, social and cultural rights (both globally and within Canada) has impacted women more than buy Cytotec tablets without rx men. The division between CP rights on the one hand, and buy Cytotec tablets without rx ESC rights on the other, follows the gendered lines of the buy Cytotec tablets without rx public private divide. The rights to buy Cytotec tablets without rx housing, food, water and cultural identity are all more closely identified with woman’s traditional role within the family, home and community. The rights to buy Cytotec tablets without rx freedom from torture, political participation and a fair trial are all more closely associated with the buy Cytotec tablets without rx male role in the public sphere.
The privileging of civil and buy Cytotec tablets without rx political rights over the enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights is buy Cytotec tablets without rx also reinforced by the buy Cytotec tablets without rx gender divide; because civil and political rights are in the public sphere and buy Cytotec tablets without rx impact those in power (disproportionately men) more directly, it buy Cytotec tablets without rx is these rights that the international community has acted more quickly and buy Cytotec tablets without rx decisively on.
Clearly, the buy Cytotec tablets without rx rights to free speech and protection from a police state are buy Cytotec tablets without rx vital to any rights-respecting democracy. This critique is buy Cytotec tablets without rx meant to highlight the importance of economic, social and cultural rights in addition to buy Cytotec tablets without rx these civil and political rights, without diminishing their counterparts. It’s meant to buy Cytotec tablets without rx highlight the interconnectedness of these rights, particularly for women; without adequate health care for buy Cytotec tablets without rx their families, or close proximity to an adequate water source, women will not be buy Cytotec tablets without rx freed enough from their traditional responsibilities in the family sphere to buy Cytotec tablets without rx run for office or engage in the public life of their state. Without economic equality, women are rendered second class citizens.
The particular significance of ESC rights to women’s human dignity means that buy Cytotec tablets without rx the introduction of the OP-ICESCR is a victory for women and buy Cytotec tablets without rx women’s advocates around the world.
What does this mean in Canada?
While critics have buy Cytotec tablets without rx their doubts that this protocol will be ratified by the buy Cytotec tablets without rx present government of Canada, if it was ratified it could have buy Cytotec tablets without rx significant results. Canadian courts have steadfastly refused to recognize ESC rights content in the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Charter guarantees to buy Cytotec tablets without rx life, security of the person or equality, so the OP-ICESCR could provide a buy Cytotec tablets without rx unique opportunity to adjudicate these rights infringements in Canada.
However, even if Canada doesn’t sign on to buy Cytotec tablets without rx the OP-ICESCR, as the international community moves past the debate over the buy Cytotec tablets without rx justiciability of ESC rights, this may have ripple effects on domestic courts. Whether this buy Cytotec tablets without rx impact is felt in Canadian jurisprudence depends at least in part of the buy Cytotec tablets without rx awareness of human rights and constitutional lawyers, and their willingness to buy Cytotec tablets without rx bring the jurisprudence of the Committee on Economic, Social and buy Cytotec tablets without rx Cultural rights to bear on their arguments before Canadian courts.
What’s next?
Arguably, the buy Cytotec tablets without rx passage of the OP-ICESCR marks a transition in the international debate on ESC rights from buy Cytotec tablets without rx whether such rights are justiciable to how they should be adjudicated.
It will be buy Cytotec tablets without rx interesting to see whether the ICESCR Committee wholly imports its general comments on minimum core content into its jurisprudence on complaints under the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Optional Protocol – for buy Cytotec tablets without rx example, in its General Comment 15, the Committee notes that the buy Cytotec tablets without rx minimum core content of the right to water includes the right not to buy Cytotec tablets without rx be deprived of the minimum essential level of water, defined as the buy Cytotec tablets without rx amount that is sufficient and safe to prevent disease, and that buy Cytotec tablets without rx deprivation of this right cannot be justified by state parties under any circumstances (CESCR, General Comment 15 online pharmacy accutane, paras.40, 56 and 37(a)). If the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Committee receives a complaint about the right to water that the buy Cytotec tablets without rx state is seeking to defend by showing that it does not have buy Cytotec tablets without rx the available resources to meet the complainant’s needs, will the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Committee stick to the framework it described in General Comment 15, or buy Cytotec tablets without rx will it be forced to re-consider this hard-line approach? And if the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Committee reconsiders the enforceability of the minimum core content where there are buy Cytotec tablets without rx concerns about a country’s financial capabilities, can buy Cytotec tablets without rx it still develop into a relevant and useful body on the buy Cytotec tablets without rx international stage?
While we are buy Cytotec tablets without rx still basking in the achievement that is the passage of the buy Cytotec tablets without rx Optional Protocol by the General Assembly, critics are starting to look forward and buy Cytotec tablets without rx wonder: will the new Optional Protocol achieve the dream of enforcing economic, social and buy Cytotec tablets without rx cultural rights?
