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Enforcement of Human Rights

Since two human rights treaties (the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights) were created instead of one, the enforcements of human rights is much more complicated than originally envisioned. There are two separate processes for implementing the human rights for each of the two covenants. Both processes can be ineffective, and they are often criticized since many people still feel that human rights is a domestic concern, not one that should be dealt with on the international stage.

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Economic, social and cultural rights are described in the CESCR. There is difficulty enforcing these rights, since the covenant only encourages the states to do the best they can in providing the rights. Shown here, Article 2 of the CESCR declares that a state only has to realize the economic, social, and cultural rights "to the maximum of it's available resources":

Article 2:
1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take steps, individually and through international assistance and co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present Covenant by all appropriate means, including particularly the adoption of legislative measures.

Since the covenant uses the financial state of a country to gauge its ability to provide the right, a democratic nation may argue that its capital should be better spent on democracy instead of the economic, social and cultural rights of its people. Consequently, a state that should provide more of these rights can simply point to the covenant and argue that its money can be used in other and more important ways.
In addition, the enforcement mechanism under the CESCR has limited potency. States are required to submit reports every six years on the progress they have taken to achieve the rights in the CESCR. States are also allowed to describe reasons for the shortcomings. If there is a valid reason for why the rights were not provided properly, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can help the state by arranging for financial assistance from other international organizations. However, the committee has had a problem with states failing to even submit a report. Some of those submitted are written for the sole purpose of fulfilling the report obligation; they lack candor and do not provide an insightful view into the state of human rights in their respective states.
Other reasons for lack of monitoring and enforcement include the ambiguousness of the duties in the CESCR, and that non governmental organizations tend not to dwell upon violations of the economic, social, and cultural rights.