case of violations.104 As such, a Party’s failure to “take appropriate measures
or to exercise due diligence to prevent, punish, investigate or redress the
harm” caused by private entities could give rise to violations of the
ICCPR.105
With respect to economic, social and cultural rights, Article 2(1) of
the International Covenant on Economical, Social, and Cultural Rights
(ICESCR) sets forth the obligation of State Parties to work toward the
progressive implementation of the rights under the Covenant. Each Party
agrees to “take steps, individually and through international assistance and
co-operation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its
available resources,” and “all appropriate means” to achieve the full
realization of the specified rights.106 The UN Committee on Economic,
Social, and Cultural Rights has emphasized that the ICESCR imposes
immediate obligations on Parties to take concrete and targeted actions
toward the realization of those rights.107 In regard to corporations, it has
stated that: “States Parties should also take steps to prevent human rights
contraventions abroad by corporations that have their main seat under their
jurisdiction, without infringing the sovereignty or diminishing the
obligations of host states under the Covenant.”108 Furthermore it has
required that “[t]o comply with their international obligations in relation to
Article 12, States Parties have to respect the enjoyment of the right to health
in other countries, and to prevent third parties from violating the right in
other countries.”109 As stated in the OHCHR Report, “irrespective of the
additional strain climate change-related events may place on available
resources, States remain under an obligation to ensure the widest possible
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104
Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 31, The Nature of the General Legal Obligation
Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant, Eighteenth Session, May 26, 2004 at ¶ 6.
105
Id. at ¶ 8.
106
Internatinoal Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, December 19, 1966, art. 2(1), 993
U.N.T.S. 3.
107
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 3: The
Nature of States Parties’ Obligations, Fifth Session, Dec. 14, 1990, at ¶ 2.
108
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Statement on the Obligations of
States Parties Regarding the Corporate Sector and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 2011, at ¶¶ 5-6.
109
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Culutral Rights, General Comment 14: The Right
to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, Twenty-Second Session, August 11, 2000, at ¶ 39. It has
made similar statements in other General Comments, for example United Nations Committee on Economic,
Social, and Culutral Rights, General Comment 15: The Right to Water, Twenty-Ninth Session, January 20,
2003, at ¶ 33.
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