While the emergence of internationally guaranteed economic, social and cultural rights did not start with the adoption and entry into force of the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (‘ICESCR’ or ‘Covenant’), the Covenant was the first global treaty to address the issue in a comprehensive fashion. Just like its ‘sister treaty’, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Covenant drew on preceding examples of ESC rights, most notably Articles 21–29 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (‘UDHR’). As of March 2020, the Covenant was ratified by 170 states. Notable absences from the rank of parties include Botswana, Malaysia, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United States of America. The discussion in this chapter follows the basic structure that has been laid out in the Introduction: It will first turn to the institutional setting of the Covenant (Section I.), before addressing the substantive obligations arising from the ICESCR and the development of the Covenant's non-regression concept in particular (Sections II. and III.). Finally, this chapter will discuss the supervisory mechanisms of the Covenant, which are not least noteworthy for the development of several innovative (and mostly quantitative) techniques that are meant to facilitate the implementation and supervision of the Covenant obligations (Sections IV. and V.). While this chapter focuses primarily on the ICESCR, references may also be made to other human rights treaties on the universal level with an ESC rights component, notably the Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘CRC’) and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (‘CRPD’), where useful.

THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK SUPPORTING THE COVENANT

Although the central organ supervising the Covenant is now a specialised treaty body, responsibility for the Covenant originally rested with the UN Economic and Social Council (‘ECOSOC’), i.e. one of the bodies established by the Charter of the United Nations. Unlike the Human Rights Committee supervising the ICCPR, which was established by that very treaty, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (‘CESCR’ or ‘Committee’) was only created by a resolution adopted by ECOSOC in 1985. While the Committee exhibits most of the central traits and elements of the other UN human rights treaty bodies, its creation by ECOSOC gives the CESCR a peculiar institutional character.