Ecuador first to ratify new UN mechanism to enforce economic, social and cultural rights

[cory777]

Source: Amnesty International



Amnesty International urges other countries to follow Ecuador's example and ratify a new UN mechanism that will provide access to justice for everyone whose economic, social and cultural rights are violated and who is denied an effective remedy in their own countries.

Ecuador is the first country in the world to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights which allows individuals and groups within the country to seek justice from the United Nations should these rights - which include the rights to adequate housing, food, water, health, work, social security and education - be violated by their government.

"Access to justice is an essential right for victims of all human rights violations," said Widney Brown, Amnesty International's Senior Director of International Law and Policy. "We encourage all countries to follow Ecuador's positive example and ratify within the shortest possible time."

The Optional Protocol will enable people denied their human rights to have their complaints heard in front of an independent, international panel of experts. The decisions made by this new mechanism are likely to influence decisions of national and regional courts around the world.

Read more: http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?id=ENGPRE201006151718&lang=e

[dipsydoodle]

1. From a couple of years back

It is a well kept secret that Bechtel won a contract to privatize the water in Ecuador's largest city, Guayaquil, just months after the massive citizen protests that threw Bechtel out of Bolivia. In October 2000, a local Bechtel subsidiary, Interagua, signed a 30-year concession contract to run the water and sanitation services in Guayaquil. The privatization process was promoted by loans from the Inter-American Development Bank and a guarantee from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a World Bank agency. Now, more than six years later, the residents of Guayaquil are demanding damages from the company for water contamination, an end to water cut-offs, and a return to local, public control.

http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4686

Soon as Bechtel have got a contract it becomes illegal to collect rainwater.

[Lasher]

2. The global free market won't like this.

Which immediately makes me like the idea. But at the same time I am a little skeptical, wondering just what sort of remedies the UN might mandate.