60 Years of Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Social Rights finally acquire Equal Footing with Political Rights
Heidelberg 08.12.08- On December 10th, people all over the world will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On this occasion, FIAN International calls on all governments and parliaments to sign and ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, which will be adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10th.
Once ratified by at least 10 States, this Protocol will allow individuals to issue a complaint before the United Nations regarding violations of their economic, social and cultural rights.
“Finally, economic and social human rights will be on the same footing with civil and political rights that have already had an associated complaints mechanism for many years”, says Flavio Valente, Secretary General of FIAN International. “The signing and ratification of the Optional Protocol would send out a strong message to the world that the indivisibility of human rights must be put into practice.” Additionally, the justiciability of the right to food, and all human rights, must be strengthened at the national level.
Currently, more than 920 million people are chronically undernourished in this world. It is hard to comprehend such a drastic figure. Violations of the right to food mean more when you look at individuals suffering. In the first days of October 2008, four people in a small town called Sircilla in Andhra Pradesh, India, died from starvation. Two male weavers then committed suicide because they were no longer able to feed themselves and their families and pay their debts. These debts and the consequent lack of food on their tables occurred because of ignorant government policies from the 1990s that made it nearly impossible for weavers in Sircilla to continue their work. When these men commit suicide, women are often unable to find work that pays enough to feed their families and they bear the brunt of the suffering associated with hunger and the embarrassment that they cannot provide for their families.
Just two days before the hopeful adoption of the OP-ICESCR, an international conference will begin that will put due emphasis on the significance of the right to food as a human right. The Urgent Action on the starvation deaths in Andhra Pradesh, India