Question of the Realization in All Countries of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

A/HRC/RES/58/9View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A document of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2025.

What other versions does this mandate have?

12 versions · 2007–2025

2025A/HRC/RES/58/9Question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rightsLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/52/11Question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rightsCompare with previous version
2021A/HRC/RES/46/10Question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rightsCompare with previous version
2019A/HRC/RES/40/12Question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rightsCompare with previous version
2018A/HRC/RES/37/13Question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rightsCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 topics

Development Finance Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Human Rights Resources Mobilization Social Justice Social Security Sustainable Development

What does this mandate say?

36 operative paragraphs

Urges all States to respect, protect and fulfil all economic, social and cultural rights by strengthening legal frameworks, adopting adequate policies and programmes and allocating sufficient resources for their implementation;

Calls upon all States to implement the Human Rights Council resolutions on the question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rights, the most recent of which being resolution 52/11;

Welcomes the most recent accessions to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and calls upon all States that have not yet signed and ratified or acceded to the Covenant to consider doing so as a matter of priority, and States Parties to consider reviewing their reservations thereto;

Also welcomes the most recent accessions to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and calls upon all States that have not yet signed and ratified or acceded to the Optional Protocol to consider doing so, and to consider making declarations under articles 10 and 11 thereof;

Takes note with appreciation of the report of the Secretary-General on the question of the realization of economic, social and cultural rights in all countries, with a special focus on challenges and good practices to strengthen the fulfilment of the right to social security;

Notes with appreciation the panel discussion on challenges and good practices to realize the right to social security and to provide quality public services, held during the fifty-fifth session of the Human Rights Council pursuant to its resolution 52/11;

Takes note with appreciation of the practical information note of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on promising practices in realizing the right to social security, and encourages the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue and to enhance its work on economic, social and cultural rights, in particular in the area of social protection, assisting States in fulfilling the right to social security without discrimination;

Recognizes that all States have the potential to expand their investment in inclusive and equitable quality education, physical and mental health, adequate housing and social protection, which contributes to the fulfilment of their obligations regarding the realization of economic, social and cultural rights;

Notes with appreciation the contributions of international human rights mechanisms, including the international human rights treaty bodies, the Human Rights Council and its subsidiary bodies, the special procedures and the universal periodic review, in promoting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in a manner consistent with States’ human rights obligations, and encourages States to give due consideration to information, observations and recommendations from human rights mechanisms when implementing and monitoring the progress of the 2030 Agenda and to promote the cooperation of all stakeholders towards the full integration of human rights into the said processes;

Underlines the importance of access to justice and to an effective remedy for violations of economic, social and cultural rights, including those of a systemic character, in this regard notes with appreciation the measures taken by States for the domestic adjudication of cases and to ensure access to complaints procedures for victims of alleged human rights violations, and calls upon States to strengthen their efforts to guarantee access to judicial and non-judicial remedies at the national, regional and international levels;

Welcomes the steps taken at the national level to implement economic, social and cultural rights, including the enactment of appropriate legislation and adjudication by national courts, and in this regard underlines the need to consider justiciability when determining the best way to give domestic legal effect to the rights contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;

Acknowledges the role of national courts in the legal enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights, which contributes to identifying gaps in legislation in regard to the realization of these rights and to assessing the compliance of States Parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights towards the full realization of these rights;

Also acknowledges that social protection floors facilitate the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights to education, social security, work, including just and favourable conditions of work, the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and safe drinking water and sanitation, in accordance with the human rights obligations of States, and in this regard underlines the importance of acting consistently to establish and/or further develop such floors in compliance with the principles of non-discrimination and equality, gender equality and inclusion of persons with disabilities, transparency, participation and accountability;

Further acknowledges the important contribution of women and girls to sustainable development and reiterates that gender equality, the empowerment of all women and girls and women’s full, equal and meaningful participation and leadership in the economy are vital for achieving sustainable development, promoting peaceful, just and inclusive societies, enhancing sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth and productivity, ending poverty in all its forms everywhere and ensuring the well-being of all;

Encourages the use of international human rights standards and the recommendations of the human rights bodies and mechanisms to identify the root causes of discrimination, in particular in the context of multiple and aggravated forms of discrimination, and the taking of the measures necessary to combat discrimination and inequalities, and calls upon States to identify patterns of discrimination in law, policies and practices and to address entrenched structural barriers and unequal power relations that generate and perpetuate inequality over generations;

Calls upon States:

To adopt, further develop, use and promote the use of procedures for information-gathering and measurement, including alternative measurements of progress on sustainable development to complement and go beyond gross domestic product and human rights indicators contextualized at the national level, to support decision-making processes and to measure progress in the implementation of laws, policies and actions to respect, protect and fulfil economic, social and cultural rights and to address discrimination and inequalities, noting that these procedures should respect human rights, including the right to privacy, be transparent and participatory, and allow for accountability;

To strengthen the role and capacity of national human rights institutions consistent with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles) and of equality bodies, to protect civic space, to contribute to strengthening the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and to provide support for stakeholders in the identification of appropriate measures for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals at the national and local levels;

To consider establishing and/or strengthening national mechanisms for the implementation of, reporting on and follow-up to human rights obligations and recommendations, recognizing their contribution to implementation, reporting and follow-up processes and their potential to undertake cross-cutting initiatives to strengthen the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and to follow up on and review the progress made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and international and national commitments made at United Nations conferences and summits;

Acknowledges the work carried out by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to assist States Parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in fulfilling their obligations, including through the elaboration of general comments, the consideration of periodic reports and, for States Parties to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant, the examination of individual communications;

Also acknowledges the work of other relevant treaty bodies and special procedures, within their mandates, in the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights, and the important role of the universal periodic review in this regard;

Encourages enhanced cooperation and increased coordination between the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other human rights treaty bodies, United Nations bodies, specialized agencies and programmes and the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council whose activities have a bearing on economic, social and cultural rights, in a manner that respects their distinctive mandates and promotes their policies, programmes and projects;

Recognizes and encourages the important contributions of regional organizations, national human rights institutions, national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up, local and regional governments, Indigenous Peoples and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutions, business enterprises and trade unions, to the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights, including training and information activities, and underlines the importance of consultation with and the participation of affected persons in decisions affecting them;

Encourages States, in line with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, to provide effective guidance to business enterprises on how to meet their responsibility to respect human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights, throughout their operations, and to seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts;

Encourages the implementation of targeted measures to achieve social protection financing targets and to eradicate poverty by addressing it in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty and the feminization of poverty, inter alia, through rural development strategies that reduce inequalities and that take into account sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition dimensions and the right to food, and investments in public services, in the social sector and in well-designed, sustainable and efficient social security systems that are accessible for all, including persons with disabilities, and responsive to shocks, and the taking of effective measures for the enjoyment by all persons of their right to social security, including towards its take-up;

Also encourages the creation of decent jobs and livelihoods for all, including for young persons, especially in developing countries, while facilitating the transition of workers from the informal to the formal sector and dismantling inequalities in the care economy, also taking into consideration women’s unequal share of unpaid or underpaid care and domestic work and women’s overrepresentation in the informal sector;

Stresses the importance of providing and mobilizing sustainable, affordable, accessible, transparent, adequate and predictable development finance from all sources and the required means of implementation to developing countries and of creating a more enabling environment at the global, regional and national levels to increase the mobilization of domestic resources, which contribute to the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, recognizing the instrumentality of financing for development and climate finance to this effect, as well as the importance of fulfilling official development assistance commitments;

Encourages international financial institutions to continue to support States in their efforts to build strong institutions, ensuring good governance able to create economic and social resilience in times of polycrisis, and, when doing so, to take into consideration the prioritization of social spending and the enhancement of States’ fiscal space, namely, improving efficiency of public expenditure, improving debt management, accessing external financing, mobilizing domestic resources and reducing the costs of transfer of remittances, and to consider using the multidimensional vulnerability index, as appropriate, while engaging collaboratively in terms of international assistance and cooperation, all of which contributes to the realization of economic, social and cultural rights;

Urges States to engage in a strengthened multilateral response to support countries with unsustainable debt burdens, with the meaningful participation of the countries concerned and all relevant actors, to prioritize government expenditure on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, which cover a wide range of issues relating to economic, social and cultural rights, and, as appropriate, the use of debt swaps for the Goals, and to develop measurements of progress on sustainable development that complement and go beyond gross domestic product;

Calls upon States to take into consideration their economic, social and cultural rights obligations when promoting inclusive and effective international tax cooperation, as it enables countries to effectively mobilize their domestic resources, and to continue to engage constructively in the process towards developing a United Nations framework convention on international tax cooperation;

Welcomes the activities carried out by the Office of the High Commissioner on the promotion of economic, social and cultural rights, mainly through technical cooperation, and notes with appreciation the work of its field offices, its relevant reports to United Nations bodies, the development of in-house expertise, including on human rights indicators, and its publications, studies, training and information activities on related issues, including through new information technologies;

Calls upon States to secure ambitious outcomes at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development, in 2025, and at the Second World Summit for Social Development, in 2025, to close the Sustainable Development Goal financing gap and the social protection financing gap, to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to advance the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, all of which are interrelated and mutually reinforcing;

Decides to convene, at its sixty-first session, a panel discussion, to be organized by the High Commissioner, accessible to persons with disabilities and open to the participation of States, local authorities, relevant treaty bodies and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, academia, civil society and other relevant stakeholders, on promising practices and measures to mobilize public resources to finance sustainable development in a manner consistent with States’ economic, social and cultural rights obligations and reflecting on the outcomes of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development and the Second World Summit for Social Development that will be held in 2025;

Requests the Secretary-General to prepare and submit to the Human Rights Council, at its sixty-fourth session, a report, in formats accessible to persons with disabilities, on the question of the realization in all countries of economic, social and cultural rights under agenda item 3, with a special focus on the mobilization of public resources to finance sustainable development in a manner consistent with States’ economic, social and cultural rights obligations, taking into consideration the outcomes of the panel discussion to be convened at the sixty-first session;

Requests the Human Rights Council Advisory Committee to prepare a study, in consultation, where possible, with the Office of the High Commissioner, in formats accessible to persons with disabilities, on the achievement of social justice through the legal enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights by national courts and to present the study to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-fourth session;

Decides to remain seized of this issue and to consider taking further action in order to implement the present resolution.

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