Self-assessment - understanding ESC rights
Instructions: Test your knowledge. Answer true or false to the following statements.
1. The right to work would require the government or business to give a job to anyone who asks.
Answer: False. The right to work in Article 6 of the ICESCR protects first the right of individuals to pursue work of their own choosing, and secondly that governments undertake training and other programs to assist individuals to find work, and to reduce unemployment.
2. The ICESCR creates positive obligations on states, whereas civil and political rights create negative obligations on states.
Answer: False. Although the ICESCR places many obligations on states to take positive steps to fulfill rights, such positive obligations are also found in regards to many civil and political rights. Further, some of the rights protected in the ICESCR, such as trade union rights and cultural rights, require states to refrain from interfering with basic freedoms.
3. Although governments may have limited resources, they cannot discriminate in how they distribute those to fulfill rights to education, housing or health.
Answer: True. Articles 2(2) and 3 of the ICESCR make clear that discrimination on grounds of sex, race, colour, language, religion, etc., is impermissible.
4. Economic and social rights are more politicized than civil and political rights because they seem to impose choices on governments as regards economic and social policy.
Answer: False. The ICESCR is silent on how a government purses its obligations, even if it would seem that a social democratic policy might be best; just as the ICCPR is silent on how governments respect freedoms, though obviously this will be easier in a full democracy