Monitoring the implementation of social rights through indicators with special focus on the inter-American level

Abstract

Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) are recognized and protected in global and regional human rights instruments. State Parties have a legal obligation to respect, protect and fulfill these rights and are expected to take progressive action towards their fulfillment. Over fifty years ago, in 1966, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) which entered into force in 1976. In the case of the countries of the Americas, the instrument which guarantees ESCR is the Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of Economic Social and Cultural Rights Protocol of San Salvador, whichestablishes the obligations of the countries in the Americas with regard to the fulfillment of the social right. The Inter-American Human Rights System (IHRS) makes a key contribution when establishing in 2005 through a Resolution of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) that the design of the monitoring mechanism of the Protocol of San Salvador be done through progress indicators. This milestone implies the starting point for an unprecedented process for the design, validation and implementation of a mechanism that combines obligations, accountability and empirical evidence for eight rights. For this purpose, as of 2010 the WGPSS for the implementation of the Protocol became operative. The WGPSS developed a matrix with progress indicators, that constitute the basis for which 16 State parties must obligatorily elaborate their national reports. The main objective of this chapter is to analyze this process, starting with examining the relevance of the progress indicators and the results achieved up to now. Likewise, an analysis is made of the main lessons learned and the remaining challenges for the social rights monitoring process in the Americas.