Optional Protocol

FIDH is actively involved in the campaign for the adoption of an Optional Protocol (OP) to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights. This Protocol would establish a communication procedure which would enable individuals, or groups of individuals or their representative to bring complaints to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights (CESCR) concerning violations of rights contained in the Covenant. The adoption of such a Protocol has been recommended at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights in 1993, to improve the justiciability of these rights and restore the balance with International Covenant on Civil and Political rights which already allows for individual recourse. An open-ended working group of the United Nations has thus been created and is currently discussing an optional protocol. FIDHis an active member of the International NGO coalition for the OP.

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