The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) was adopted alongside the ICCPR on 16 December 1966 and entered into force in 1976. It protects the rights that determine whether people can live with dignity in their daily lives.
Rights Protected
The Covenant recognises the right to work and to just and favourable conditions of work, including fair wages, equal pay for work of equal value, safe working conditions and reasonable limitation of working hours (Articles 6 and 7); the right to form and join trade unions and to strike (Article 8); the right to social security (Article 9); protection of the family, mothers and children (Article 10); the right to an adequate standard of living, including food, clothing and housing (Article 11); the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (Article 12); the right to education, with primary education compulsory and free (Articles 13 and 14); and the right to take part in cultural life and to benefit from scientific progress (Article 15).
Progressive Realisation
Under Article 2(1), each state undertakes to take steps, to the maximum of its available resources, to achieve progressively the full realisation of these rights. Certain obligations, however, are immediate, notably the guarantee that rights will be exercised without discrimination and the duty to ensure at least minimum essential levels of each right.
Monitoring
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights reviews state reports and has issued influential General Comments on the rights to housing, food, water, health and education.
In Indonesia
Indonesia ratified the ICESCR by Law No. 11 of 2005. Its standards are reflected in the constitutional rights to work and a decent living, social security, health services and education (Articles 27, 28H and 31 of the 1945 Constitution), in the requirement that at least twenty per cent of national and regional budgets be allocated to education, and in national health insurance and social security programmes.