You are here
Home ›Entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)
Last 5 February, the 10th instrument of ratification of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR was deposited, producing the effect of its the entry into force this 5 May. The Protocol was adopted in 2008 and empowers the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a UN Treaty Body entrusted with the monitoring of the implementation of the ICESCR, to receive individual complaints and to conduct inquiries in cases of grave or systematic violations of the rights under the Covenant (such as the right to work, to an adequate standard of living, to health or to education). The Protocol follows the model of individual complaints existing under other UN Conventions, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Four European Countries have ratified the Protocol (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain) and another twelve have signed it.
For more information, visit the website of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and read the text of the Optional Protocol.
This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the weekly ELENA legal update supported by the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Funding Programme and distributed by email. The purpose of these updates is to inform asylum lawyers and legal organizations supporting asylum seekers and refugees of recent developments in the field of asylum law. Please note that the information provided is taken from publicly available information on the internet. Every reasonable effort is made to make the content accurate and up to date at the time each item is published but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE, the IRC or its partners.