International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)

ICESCR is an international human rights treaty adopted in 1966. The UK agreed to follow ICESCR in 1976.

It ensures the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights to:

• education
• fair and just conditions of work
• an adequate standard of living
• the highest attainable standard of health
• social security

Read our latest report on economic, social and cultural rights in Great Britain (December 2022).

Older work

Other work we have produced as part of our ICESCR monitoring includes:

• a report on progress of socio-economic rights in Great Britain (March 2018)
• a letter to the Justice Secretary, encouraging the government to implement the UN’s concluding observations. We received a response from Sir Oliver Heald QC MP (January 2017)
• our updated submission on the UK’s implementation of ICESCR (April 2016)
• our statement to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (October 2015)
• our submission to the UN Committee on socio-economic rights in the UK (August 2015)
• a series of video tutorials (YouTube) in collaboration with the University of Nottingham and written materials (University of Nottingham website) to raise awareness of socio-economic rights