Framing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the U.N.

Abstract

Domestic social justice advocates understand that economic, social, and cultural rights are inextricable from civil and political rights. Thus, the United States’ failure to ratify core international human rights treaties addressing economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights has not prevented advocates from engaging the United Nations’ human rights system to frame and promote ESC issues within the United States. Indeed, advocates engage the reporting and review mechanisms for the civil and political rights treaties that the United States has ratified,as well as the more far-reaching U.N. Charter-based mechanisms, to address a broad array of ESC rights concerns. By raising ESC-related issues through the anti-discrimination and equality provisions of ratified treaties and by directly invoking ESC protections through the U.N. Charter-based bodies, advocates illuminate the interrelated nature of rights and raise, on the international stage, domestic human rights concerns related to housing, education, healthcare, and income security, among others.This essay explores these two U.N.-based advocacy strategies to analyze their impact on framing and promoting ESC rights domestically. Part II examines the strategy whereby advocates leverage the broad definition of discrimination recognized by human rights treaties focusing primarily on civil and political rights to highlight the interrelated nature of rights and address ESC concerns in the United States. Part III examines advocates’ use of U.N. Charter-based mechanisms, particularly the Universal Periodic Review and U.N. Special Procedures, to address ESC-related concerns more directly. Part IV considers the impact and effectiveness of these strategies, recognizing their success and limitations and offering suggestions to deepen their positive effect on promoting ESC rights in the United States.