Dear Friends, Greetings from the IWRAW Asia-Pacific Team on the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)! The Optional Protocol is an individual complaints mechanism that amongst other things, would enable the Committee on the ICESCR to receive complaints of violations of the rights elaborated in the Covenant from individual victims. We are currently in Geneva and are contacting you to enlist your immediate assistance to send a letter of support and monitor your government's role in regard to the establishment of a working group to draft an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. We take this opportunity to share the issues we believe to be of critical importance and ask you to join us in collaborating with the NGO Coalition for the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. We are approaching you as partners in working towards effective implementation of international human rights standards. We strongly believe that the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR will be a strong tool for us to ensure domestic compliance with universally recognised standards of protection for human rights for all people. WHY IS THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE ICESCR RELEVANT TO OUR WORK? a) It will help clarify our understanding of universal standards of human rights and their realisation at the domestic level. b) The process of involvement at this level will ensure the reflection of our priorities and realities in the process, thereby ensuring a mechanism that will respond to us effectively. c) Economic, social and cultural rights are critical to the effective exercise of civil and political rights. Economic, social and cultural rights are enabling conditions that are of critical importance to marginalised groups and individuals. We are all dependent on our States to fulfill their obligations regarding the realisation of all human rights as inter-dependent. d) Our involvement is critical to engendering the process of formulating the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. e) It will facilitate transparency in the actions and words of the states at the domestic and international levels, which will contribute to effective strategies in demanding accountability from our own states. f) This process will help us in working with Optional Protocol to the CEDAW as it will contribute to an integrated understanding of economic, social and cultural rights. The current (59th) Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is set to mandate the setting-up of an Open-Ended Working Group to draft the Optional Protocol. For your information, an Open-Ended Working Group refers to a Working Group that includes all member states of the UN. The present Open-Ended Working Group will work specifically towards preparing a draft Optional Protocol to the ICESCR through a process of discussion, consensus and debate. The Delegation of Portugal has already moved the proposal for a resolution for setting up of the Open Ended Working Group, and has been discussing its resolution for the past years. Its proposal this year includes language that says clearly that the Open-Ended Working Group will be set up to elaborate a draft Optional Protocol. Portugal is not a member of the Commission of Human Rights, and therefore, while it can move a resolution as the main sponsor of the resolution, it cannot vote with the other member states of the Commission. The delegation members have been trying to mobilise support from members of the Human Rights Commission since the beginning of 2003 and they are concerned that there are many new obstacles to overcome. At present, there is a move by governments like the US, India, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan and China to weaken the resolution and ask for an Open-Ended Working Group that would examine Options to the Optional Protocol. The reluctance being shown by the states to follow through on the promise made strikes at the very heart of the indivisibility of rights. The principle of indivisibility of human rights was established in 1993 at the Vienna conference. There can be no rationale for states to hesitate in treating rights elaborated in the ICESCR as lesser than others or of denying protection of the same level. The adoption of the Optional Protocol is long overdue. The Vienna declaration asked the Commission on Human Rights to cooperate with the Committee on the ESCR on examining the adoption of an Optional Protocol to the Covenant. The Committee then presented a draft in 1997. There is an attempt to question the justiciability of rights elaborated by the Covenant, which in effect would be a crucial step back from the gains made by the international community in the area of Universal human rights standards. In plenary, many of the 'opposing' states continued to assert that economic, social and cultural rights are merely ASPIRATIONS rather CLAIMS/entitlements of every human being. Further the content of the state obligations undertaken by ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has been clarified by a wide variety of sources including: a) General Comments of the Committee on the ICESCR b) Report of the Independent Expert appointed by the Commission on the question of an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. c) Reports of the United Nations Special Rapporteurs in issues related to ESC rights. d) National, regional and international bodies e) National and international conference proceedings f) Text of legal instruments It is critical that governments stand by their commitments to the integrity of the human rights systems and support the setting up of the Open-Ended Working Group to draft the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. Please find below a letter that you could send to your government and copy to the concerned Permanent Mission in Geneva as well as to the CHR and to us, so we can give the same to members of your delegation following the negotiations. We are including a list of the members of the Commission of Human Rights as well as their position on the Open-Ended Working Group on the Elaboration of a draft Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. In order to know the status of your country regarding the ICESCR and relevant jurisprudential statements of the Committee, you can visit <www.bayefsky.com>. Please check to see your country's position and use the letter accordingly. The decision on the resolution will be taken by the 16th April, 2003. We would request you to ensure that your letter reaches Edwin Berry <berry@ icj.org> and us <iwraw@po.jaring.my> BY THE 15th OF APRIL 2003 to enable us to use it as effectively as possible. We remind you that your contribution to this process is critical to the protection of human rights of all people in accordance with universally accepted and recognized standards. In Solidarity IWRAW Asia-Pacific Team At The Commission on Human Rights, Geneva ------------------------------------------- Our Views on Members of the 59th Session of the Commission on Human Rights 53 members who have the right to vote in the process at the CHR For the Open-Ended Working Group with a specific mandate to draft an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR: Austria Belgium Croatia Finland Germany Greece (not in Human Rights Commission but trying to promote EU common stance) Grulac Members (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Guatemala, Venezuela, Uruguay) Pakistan Portugal (not in Human Rights Commission but main sponsor of resolution on OP-ICESCR) Poland South Africa Sri Lanka Against the Open-Ended Working Group with a specific mandate to draft an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR: Australia Bahrain China India Egypt (not in Human Rights Commission) Japan Malaysia Saudi Arabia Sweden United Kingdom United States of America States that do not have a definite position on the setting up of an Open-Ended Working Group with a specific mandate to draft an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR: Algeria Armenia Burkina Faso Canada Cameroon Democratic Republic of Congo Ireland Kenya Korea Libya Russian Federation Sudan Swaziland Syria Thailand Togo Uganda Ukraine Vietnam Zimbabwe ========================================================= WE ARE ALSO POSTING SEPARATELY ON THIS LISTSERVE CONTACT INFORMATION FOR YOUR GOVERNMENT DELEGATION IN GENEVA. PLEASE SEND A COPY OF THIS LETTER TO THE MINISTRIES THAT FOLLOW UP THESE PROCESSES SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO MONITOR THE SITUATION FROM THE NATIONAL LEVEL. FOR COUNTRIES CLEARLY AGAINST THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL, WE HOPE YOU ALSO TRY TO RAISE AWARENESS THROUGH THE MEDIA. Dear ______, RE: CHR 59: Item 10 on the question of the Draft Optional Protocol on the ICESCR We ask you to give your complete support to the setting up of an Open-ended Working Group to elaborate on the draft of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in accordance with the Resolution 2002/24. The Optional Protocol is a means for recognising violations of human rights that, until now, have remained unnoticed and will provide States with tools to end this impunity. We urge that our delegation at Geneva do its utmost to support the establishment of the Open-ended Working Group with the specific mandate to draft the optional protocol to ICESCR. The draft optional protocol of the Committee of the ICESCR submitted to the Commission on Human Rights in 1997 should be the starting point of the discussions. We also strongly believe that the processes and discussions of the Open-ended Working Group for Optional Protocol to CEDAW should guide the Open-ended Working Group on the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. You have stood for the principles of indivisibility and interdependence of human rights and articulated the principle with the global community in Vienna in 1993. There can be no reason for not ensuring protection which has the same currency for the rights elaborated in the ICESCR. We remind you that four of the six International Human rights treaty bodies have Optional Protocols. There can be no reason to deny the Economic, Social and Cultural rights the same protection. As citizens, we feel that the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is an essential tool for the extension of protection from non-discrimination to all vulnerable groups in our country. We also urge you to consider the different realities and realize the need of the marginalised individuals of international protection mechanisms. We hope that our delegation in Geneva will stand for integrity of international human rights standards and unequivocally support the setting up of an Open-Ended Working Group for elaborating the draft Optional Protocol to the ICESCR. Sincerely,
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