Third Open-Ended Working Group to Consider Options Regarding the Elaboration of an Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Geneva, 6-17 February 2006

Submission Regarding Options for an Optional Protocol
NGO Coalition for an Optional Protocol to the ICESCR
14 February 2006

Madam Chair,

The NGO Coalition for an Optional Protocol to the Covenant welcomes the productive work that the Working Group has engaged in this and in previous years.

We have been discussing options now for three years. The developments achieved during the past sessions of the Working Groups have convinced us that it is time to take the next step and begin the drafting process for a comprehensive Optional Protocol.

Greater clarity has been reached on admissibility criteria, avoiding duplication of procedures, standing, effect on national implementation and other issues. We have clearly exhausted the discussion about options. The existing mandate has run its course.

We are very pleased to see the convergence of a great majority of states and two regional groups in favour of moving toward drafting an Optional Protocol. We acknowledge that there are some remaining issues to be discussed. However, a drafting mandate would offer the opportunity to do so in a concrete way. The proposal put on the table by some delegations (…), if adopted, would in fact result in an obstruction to the process. It would mean that we continue repeating the same arguments ad nauseum. We note that in the present session, a mere two states have insisted on retaining the option of having no optional protocol.

The NGO Coalition also believes that the continuation of an abstract debate on the options would be an inefficient use of scarce UN resources. The fact that we are making this statement on Tuesday afternoon is an emphatic illustration of the fact that there is nothing left to be said on general elements in the absence of a concrete text. All participants will benefit from the clear focus an actual text would provide.

A draft text needs to be placed before this working Group. Such a text should be comprehensive, and accurately reflect the discussions and decisions made at this Working Group. In this regard, we encourage the Chair to conduct broad consultations in the leadup to the next Working Group, which would include, among others, regional groups, delegations, and NGOs. These discussions should be conducted in both Geneva and elsewhere.

Madam Chairperson, the mandate of the Working Group is to consider options for an Optional Protocol. Let us, as the Coalition, be clear. To our mind, the option of no Optional Protocol is not an option. It perpetuates a historic hierarchy of rights, wrought in a different political age. It fosters an inequality of review procedures within the human-rights monitoring mechanisms. It ignores the broad-ranging implementation of economic, social and cultural rights in all regions of the world. It denies the growing, global jurisprudence on economic, social and cultural rights, which has derived in large part from the increasingly comprehensive domestic and regional mechanisms to address economic, social and cultural rights. And it ignores the needs of our shared constituents, those who suffer violations of their economic, social and cultural rights, who need a mechanism at the UN level through which these violations can be addressed.

The work for an Optional Protocol is compelling as a means to provide victims with ESC rights violations with a forum for redress. It will also strengthen the existing regional mechanisms, and will assist with the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights at the national level.

The need for access to justice for those whose rights have been violated is the imperative which drives these discussions and our participation in this process, both here in Geneva and in our own work at the national level. We expect that the commitments to the protection of all human rights will be reflected by supporting the majority trend toward negotiation.

Our presence here during this Working Group is a reflection of a far broader constituency, representing national sections, confederations and their affiliates, community based organisations, other member networks and coalitions, and individuals. Our members have been fighting for years for the full realisation of economic, social and cultural rights. They are watching this process with anticipation, and expect that our work will result in the creation of a mechanism sooner rather than later.

Thank you Madam Chairperson.

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