The Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Freedoms (ADLI)
on 05/13/2013
Call for the ratification of the optional protocol relating to
international pact on economic, social and cultural rights
With the entry into force of Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, May 05, 2013, The Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Freedoms (ADLI) considers this entry into force of the Pact as an event marking the development of human rights in general, and of economic, social and cultural rights in particular. And on the occasion of this event,
ADLI recalls:
1. The entry into force of the protocol constitutes recognition of the rights of individuals and groups to apply to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights;
2. The protocol establishes a system of individual and interstate communications before the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and strengthening the rights of individuals and groups to greater social justice;
3. The entry into force of the protocol constitutes a real denial of the thesis according to which economic, social and cultural rights are not genuine human rights in the same way as civil and political rights;
Faced with this data, the ADLI calls for:
1. The ratification by Tunisia of the Optional Protocol relating to the international pact on economic, social and cultural rights, this ratification will strengthen the rights of Tunisians to social justice which constitutes a major demand of Tunisians during the events from December 17, 2010 to January 11, 2011;
2. Civil and political society's commitment to an advocacy campaign to urge the current government and the National Constituent Assembly to ratify the protocol without delay;
3. The dissemination by free journalists of the culture of human rights by publishing the protocol and its advantages for human rights in general and economic, social and cultural rights in particular.
For the ADLI office
President Wahid Ferchichi