About the Programme_
Economic and social rights (ESR) are poorly understood and rarely enforced in many states. This despite the fact that a large number of states are party to international treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
As a result, these rights need to be consolidated and given full effect through a variety of advocacy strategies including litigation. INTERIGHTS has identified the right to health and the right to education as key areas where the organisation can successfully pursue strategic litigation to better protect ESR at both the regional and international level. Over the past year, INTERIGHTS has worked on cases involving such diverse issues as the linguistic rights in education, school segregation, sexual and reproductive health education and conditions in mental health care facilities.
Announcements_
New Right to Health ResourceIain Byrne, Senior Lawyer for the Economic and Social Rights programme, has written a chapter for a new publication, Realizing The Right To Health, the third volume of the Swiss Human Rights Book edited by Andrew Clapham and Mary Robinson and published in June 2009. For further information on the publication click on the link below.
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Croatia is condemned by European Social Rights Body for Homophobic School Text BooksOn 11 August 2009, the European Committee of Social Rights, which monitors state compliance with the European Social Charter, released its decision which found that Croatia’s limited curriculum covering sex education discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation.
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Litigation_
INTERIGHTS, together with Greek Helsinki Monitor, filed a legal challenge against Greece detailing serious and widespread violations of the Roma community’s right to housing.
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INTERIGHTS is part of a coalition requesting to intervene in Piero Foresti, Laura de Carli and others v Republic of South Africa arguing that South Africa’s bilateral investment treaties should not be read in a way that conflicts with its human rights obligations under its own constitution or under international treaties that it has signed up to.
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INTERIGHTS submitted a third party application to the European Court of Human Rights in March 2009 in the case of Orsus v Croatia which is aimed at assisting the Court in clarifying the extent to which State Parties are entitled to segregate or exclude children of ethnic and/or linguistic minorities from mainstream education on the basis of linguistic or other cultural differences.
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The European Court of Human Rights ruling that the Czech government engaged in indirect discrimination against Roma children is a major step forward in implementing the European Convention on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and INTERIGHTS said today.
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Capacity Building and Standard Setting_
In June 2006 a Pacific regional judicial colloquium and workshop held on the theme ‘Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Pacific’, over 40 international jurists agreed a number of practical conclusions and recommendations covering different aspects of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR).
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April 2008 saw the culmination of years of work by economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) activists to secure a complaints mechanism for the International Covenant on ESCR when the Working Group set up by the previous UN Human Rights Commission agreed a draft Optional Protocol (OP) for submission to the Human Rights Council and ultimate approval by the General Assembly.
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