CHIANGMAI STATEMENT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
Statement by Participants of the International Workshop on National-Level
Activism on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights July 1996
Chiangmai, Thailand
- The struggle for human rights has always been a struggle
for civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Under
international law, in our work and in our lives these rights are indivisible,
inter-related and interdependent. The division of rights included
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into two separate international
covenants has generated confusion and divisiveness that has been seriously
detrimental to the protection and promotion of all rights. It is essential
that this false dichotomy, which was a creature of the Cold War, come
to an end.
- It has taken the international community several decades
to reach its current understanding of the nature and content of internationally-recognized
civil and political rights. The meaning and content of economic, social
and cultural rights are less-developed, not because they are inherently
more complex or difficult to understand and define, but because the
human rights movement and governments have until now neglected most
of these rights, devoting little time and attention to understanding
and protecting them.
- Violations of economic, social and cultural rights are
worldwide and massive, and are occurring in every society, affluent
and developing. Examples of current and incipient violations include
planned demolitions and forced evictions of millions in Nigeria and
the Philippines as well as welfare cuts in Canada and the United States,
which will further deprive millions of their economic, social and
cultural rights. It is imperative that these violations be addressed
more effectively than they have been in the past, and treated with
the same sense of urgency as the international community has devoted
to violations of civil and political rights. Governments and other
responsible parties must be held fully accountable.
- The International Monetary Fund, multilateral development
banks and other intergovernmental institutions as well as corporations
and other non-state actors have a responsibility to protect and promote
all rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, and must
be held accountable for their role in violating these rights. International
legal mechanisms must be developed to regulate the activities of these
parties as they affect human rights. The "Chiangmai Statement
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" was conceived by participants
at the International Workshop on National-Level Activism in Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights to articulate shared guiding principles
for work on ESC rights, and human rights generally.
- Agencies and NGOs responsible for development assistance
should work within a rights framework.
- Groups such as women, indigenous and tribal peoples, children,
HIV/AIDS carriers, people with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities,
gays and lesbians, poor people, refugees, asylum seekers and internally
displaced persons, occupied populations, migrant workers, and the
elderly are particularly vulnerable to violations of social, economic
and cultural rights. We must expand traditional notions of equality
and non-discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of income
and social position to ensure that these groups enjoy all of their
human rights.
- As with all rights, economic, social and cultural rights
cannot be fully understood, protected and realized without the informed,
full and genuine participation of affected communities.
- Economic, social and cultural rights are fully justiciable,
as are all human rights, and should be made enforceable within national,
regional and international systems of law. The fact that some components
of economic, social and cultural rights are subject to progressive
realization does not detract from their justiciability.
- As with all rights, an integrated approach to claiming
and enforcing economic, social and cultural rights is essential --
one that incorporates education, mobilization, self-help, legal and
political advocacy, budget and resource analysis, definition of standards,
research and monitoring. Effective compliance with economic, social
and cultural rights will require improvements in all of these areas
at the local, national, regional and international levels.
- Improved collaboration, cooperation and sharing of information,
experiences and insights by human rights organizations with each other
and with other organizations, including trade unions, women's groups,
children's groups, environmental, and social justice organizations,
is imperative for effective protection of human rights.
- To date 133 governments have ratified the Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Of particular note has been
the failure of the governments of the United States, China and Indonesia
to ratify the Covenant. The international community should strive
for universal ratification by the year 2001, the 25th anniversary
of the Covenant's entry into force. At the same time international
enforcement and monitoring procedures must be substantially improved
and strengthened, and include the creation of an individual and group
complaint procedure. Also essential is increased ratification of other
conventions affecting economic, social and cultural rights, such as
the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
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