Norman Weiß

• Der internationale Menschenrechtsschutz setzt heute zunehmend auch auf die Initiative des einzelnen Menschen, der über seine Rechte wacht und Verletzungen vor internationalen Gremien oder Gerichten rügt. Zu den Menschenrechtsverträgen, die noch kein Beschwerdeverfahren anbieten, gehört der Sozialpakt. Das wird vor allem mit der mangelnden Justitiabilität wirtschaftlicher, sozialer und kultureller Rechte begründet. Dieses Argument ist in dieser Absolutheit nicht stichhaltig; auch wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Rechte enthalten justitiable Elemente. Ein Beschwerdeverfahren könnte dazu beitragen, diese Gehalte zu konkretisieren, und würde so das Gewicht der in Rede stehenden Rechte stärken.
• This article deals with the question if and how the monitoring system of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR/Covenant) shall be strengthened. Whereas the State Parties’ obligations deriving from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights can be monitored by three mechanisms – reporting procedure, state complaint procedure and individual complaint procedure –, the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR/Committee) only disposes of the reporting procedure. Since 1990 the CESCR has been working on an possibly extension and improvement of the monitoring of the Covenant especially by drafting an Optional Protocol in order to establish a complaint procedure. The Optional Protocol would strengthen the Covenant and the rights enshrined therein. It would underline the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights. Additionally, the Optional Protocol would contribute to ensuring implementation of the Covenant. The objections against the adoption of the OptionalThis article deals with the question if and how the monitoring system of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR/Covenant) shall be strengthened. Whereas the State Parties’ obligations deriving from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights can be monitored by three mechanisms – reporting procedure, state complaint procedure and individual complaint procedure –, the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR/Committee) only disposes of the reporting procedure. Since 1990 the CESCR has been working on an possibly extension and improvement of the monitoring of the Covenant especially by drafting an Optional Protocol in order to establish a complaint procedure. The Optional Protocol would strengthen the Covenant and the rights enshrined therein. It would underline the indivisibility and interdependence of all human rights. Additionally, the Optional Protocol would contribute to ensuring implementation of the Covenant. The objections against the adoption of the Optional Protocol are threefold: first, the claim that economic, social, and cultural rights are not justiciable; secondly, that these rights are essentially group rights and therefore inappropriate for an individual complaints procedure; and thirdly, the argument that a contentious procedure, such as the individual complaints procedure, is unsuitable for pursuing the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights. The present author tries to refute this objections. Economic, social, and cultural rights are not only mere programmatic aims but true rights. The identification and clarification of their exact content and thus the justiciable “core” is not yet finished. It will be one of the Committee’s major tasks to work on this issue when dealing with concrete complaints. The drafted Optional Protocol provides for a complaint procedure that shall be open for individuals or groups claiming to be victim(s) of a violation of rights protected by the Covenant. The projected admissibility criteria and the procedure are similar to complaint procedures that exist already. The Committee’s views might contain recommendations to the State Party regarding the redress and prevention of human rights violations. The Optional Protocol is dealing with a follow up-procedure. The complaint procedure creates a need for the prolongation of the Committee’s sessions and for the increase of its budget.…