We are also convinced as stated by Ms. Louise Arbour, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, that “one of the basic challenges faced by the UN human rights system is that of giving true meaning to the principle of the indivisibility and interrelatedness of all human rights”. The Commission on Human Rights has a great role to play in order to meet this challenge and, in particular, the FIDH would like to strongly support two initiatives of utmost importance: the adoption of an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (OP ICESCR) and the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with regard to human rights(“UN Norms”)1.
FIDH strongly supports the adoption of an OP ICESCR since a complaints procedure would, inter alia: provide effective remedy at the international level for victims of economic, social and cultural rights violations and incentivize States to provide effective remedies at the national level for violations of these rights; clarify State Party obligations under the ICESCR through the development of international jurisprudence; and provide guidance to State parties in the implementation of those rights at the national level. We would like to stress the importance that the procedure created under an OP should consider all rights included in the Covenant. Economic, social and cultural rights are equally justiciable. This is clearly demonstrated by domestic and regional case-law, as shown by the encouraging experience to date of the Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter Providing for a System of Collective Complaints ; at the universal level, the limited but already significant protection of economic and social rights by the Human Rights Committee under Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights illustrates the feasibility of a similar procedure for the rights protected under the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. An OP enabling a selection of certain rights by States would create a hierarchy within rights and undermine the complementarity of all the rights contained in the Covenant, which musst be seen as mutually supportive in achieving the objective of freeing the individual from want.
FIDH is pleased with the progress made during the second session of the “open-ended working group to consider options regarding the elaboration of an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.” We support all efforts taken during the interim period at a national, regional, or international level to assist State understanding of the importance of economic, social and cultural rights and of elaborating an OP to the ICESCR to ensure the protection of these rights with the provision of effective remedies to victims.
FIDH urges the Commission to adopt a resolution which will inter alia:
Welcome the progress made during the second session of the working group;
Adopt the report2 of the second session of the “open-ended working group to consider options regarding the elaboration of an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights.”
The UN Human Rights Norms for Business, reaffirm clearly, “States have the primary responsibility to respect, ensure respect for, prevent abuses of, and promote human rights recognized in international as well as national law.” FIDH believes that the UN Norms are an important complement to the primary responsibility of governments to enforce existing human rights laws. The Norms are a unique undertaking to identify and clarify the responsibilities on businesses that are appropriate within their sphere of activity and influence.
FIDH urges the Commission on Human Rights to adopt a Resolution which will inter alia:
Reaffirm clearly that States have the primary responsibility to respect, ensure respect for, prevent abuses of, and promote human rights recognized in international as well as national law, and that this includes imposing human rights obligations on non-State actors under their jurisdiction, such as enterprises incorporated on their territory, so that the UN Human Rights Norms for Business should be seen also as clarifying the scope of the obligations of the States to protect human rights;
Welcome the study prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and renew the mandate of the OHCHR to continue to lead the multi-stakeholder consultation with inter alia, governments, business, trade unions, UN agencies and civil society;
Decide to annually review the progress of the consultative process lead by the OHCHR including an assessment of the progress realized towards the establishment of international standards on the human rights responsibilities;
Decide to appoint a special advisor to the Secretary General to advise on business and human rights. The special advisor would provide legal advice to the multi-stakeholder consultation and propose options for future development of standards based on the work undertaken by the Sub-Commission and the UN Norms on the responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises regarding human rights. The advisor should be chosen by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and lead a transparent process of consultation with all the parties concerned including trade unions, business, UN agencies, NGOs and victims or representatives of victims of human rights violations allegedly committed by corporations.
FIDH also believes that the Commission on Human Rights has an important role to play in the fight against extreme poverty, reaffirming that it has to be based on the respect of all human rights, and their indivisibility. In this regard, the FIDH urges the Commission on Human Rights to adopt a Resolution, which will, inter alia:
Recognize that extreme poverty is a particular situation of poverty, in which the number, extent and duration of deprivations of resources, capabilities, choices, security and power necessary for the enjoyment of an adequate standard of living and other civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights has led to a situation where it is extremely difficult, or even impossible, for persons and communities, to reassume their responsibilities and to regain the enjoyment of their rights, in a foreseeable future, and that the number, extent, and duration of deprivations create an invisible, but very real, threshold, under which persons and communities are trapped, and impede them to exercise the whole set of their rights: civil, cultural, economic, political and social;
Reaffirm that the fight against extreme poverty must be based on the respect of all human rights, and their indivisibility;
Reaffirm the necessity to enable those living in extreme poverty to have the cultural, social, legal and material means to be in charge of their future, and to contribute to the elaboration, application and evaluation of the policies concerning their own lives;
Invite all the special mechanisms on human rights to take into account, in the accomplishment of their mandates, the implication for those living the specific situation of extreme poverty, as a cross cutting element;
Decide to contribute to the elaboration of international standards on extreme poverty and human rights, for the full realization of human rights in the specific context of extreme poverty, taking into account their indivisibility and having in view their effective justiciability;
Encourage the independent expert on extreme poverty and the OHCHR, in order to study the link between extreme poverty and human rights, to develop, with the participation of concerned people, a broad set of indicators, in order to identify and to measure extreme poverty in all its dimensions.
Finally,the FIDH invites the Commission to strengthen the means at the disposal of the mandate holders in the field of ESC rights, to enable them to undertake further missions in situ, as well as follow-up activities.