The essential mission of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) is to universally promote the Rule of Law and the legal protection of all human rights, whether they are economic, social, cultural, civil or political.
Since its creation in 1952, the ICJ has always been involved in standard-setting; elaborating universal and regional human rights instruments and securing their adoption and implementation by governments, including in the sphere of economic, social and cultural rights.
In the last decades, a special focus of the ICJ has been to promote the interdependence and interrelation of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights under the Rule of Law, without which there certainly can be no meaningful human development.
The purpose of this compilation of essential documents of economic, social and cultural rights, is to provide lawyers, inter-governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations, governments and academics with a ready reference tool when tackling problems in the field of economic, social and cultural rights.
Reproduced in extenso in this compilation, is the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – together with States’ reservations and dates of accession -, the current draft optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Limburg Principles on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Bangalore Declaration and Plan of Action.
economic social and cultural rights compilation-thematic report-1997-eng (full text in English, PDF)