In its preamble, the Covenant recognizes that, “in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his civil and political rights.”
According to a UN ICESCR factsheet, of all global human rights standards, the Covenant provides the most important international legal framework for protecting these basic human rights.
The Covenant aims to ensure the protection of economic, social and cultural rights including:
- the right to self-determination of all peoples including the right to determine their political status and to freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development;
- access to these rights without discrimination based on race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status;
- the equal right of men and women to enjoy the rights set forth in the Covenant;
- the right to work and to have just and favourable conditions of work (fair wages, equal remuneration for work of equal value, safe and healthy working conditions, periodic holidays and reasonable limits on working hours);
- the right to form and join trade unions, the right of trade unions to establish national federations and the right to strike);
- the right to social security (includes social insurance);
- protection and assistance to the family particularly for its establishment and while it is responsible for the care and education of dependent children;
- special protection for mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth, during which they should be accorded paid leave or leave with adequate social security benefits;
- protection of children and young persons from economic and social exploitation (includes the prohibition of child labour);
- the right to an adequate standard of living (includes adequate food, clothing and housing);
- freedom from hunger by improving methods of production, conservation and distribution of food and ensuring an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need;
- the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (includes the prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases and ensures access to medical services and attention in the event of sickness);
- the right to education (includes primary education that is both free and compulsory, as well as secondary and higher education that is generally available and accessible, particularly by the progressive introduction of free education);
- the right to take part in cultural life;
- the right enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications; and
- the right to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he/she is the author.