Part I State Obligations and Rights Protected, Ch.III Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, Art.26: Progressive Development

Abstract

This chapter describes Article 26 of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR). Article 26 of the ACHR is a normative compromise allowing economic, social, and cultural rights to appear in the Convention, but without raising them to the level of civil and political rights and without giving them a legal status—that of subjective rights—that is equivalent. This provision thus places the ACHR—from the point of view of the recognition of economic, social, and cultural rights—halfway between older international normative instruments which contain no provisions relating to this category of rights and more recent conventions which place civil and political rights and ESCR on an equal footing, but also individual and collective rights. Article 26 has been debated at the time of its adoption and is still the subject of heated debate on its content and binding nature. However, the provision was not the subject of any reservation by States Parties at the time of accession or ratification of the ACHR. This is probably due to the vague and very imprecise nature of the clause. Indeed, it seems, at first sight, to place on States only a weak obligation of behavior in favor of the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights.