5.1.1 Understanding the Right to Work Concept & Content The right to work is contained in Article 6 of the ICESCR, which deals more comprehensively with work than any other instrument. This right refers to decent work – work that respects fundamental human rights as well as the rights of workers.109 It is further developed through Articles 7 and 8, such that these three articles are considered to be interdependent.110 As noted in the CESCR’s General Comment No. 18, several other international and regional instruments also recognize the right to work.111 The right to work is both individual and collective in nature, and covers all forms of work, from independent work, to dependent wage-paid work.112 The exercise of work also requires the existence of four interdependent and essential elements: availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality.113 Essential Elements for the Exercise of Work “States parties must have specialized services to assist and support individuals in order to Availability 114 Accessibility Acceptability and quality enable them to identify and find available employment;” “The labour market must be open to everyone under the jurisdiction of States 115 parties;” “the Covenant prohibits any discrimination in access to and maintenance of employment on the grounds of race, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, physical or mental disability, health status (including HIV/AIDS), sexual orientation, or civil, political, social or other status, which has the intention or effect of impairing or nullifying exercise of 116 the right to work on a basis of equality;” 117 “Physical accessibility is one dimension of accessibility to employment;” “Accessibility includes the right to seek, obtain and impart information on the means of gaining access to employment through the establishment of data networks on the employment market at the local, regional, national and 118 international levels;” “Protection of the right to work has several components, notably the right of the worker to just and favourable conditions of work, in particular to safe working conditions, the right to 119 form trade unions and the right freely to choose and accept work.” The full and effective enjoyment of the right to work is also “essential for realizing other human rights and forms an inseparable and inherent part of human dignity.”120 Economic, social and cultural rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living, may be particularly affected. To this end, Article 7 recognizes the right to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work, including fair wages and equal pay for equal work, safe and healthy working conditions, and rest and leisure time, as well as ensuring a decent living for workers and their families. The ICESCR also recognizes that work and productive employment are important in light of the “the social role which they confer and the feeling of self esteem which workers derive from them.”121 This link with human dignity is emphasized in Article 6(1), which recognizes the right of workers to freely chose or accept work, as well as in the guarantee in Article 7 of fair and equal remuneration and opportunity for promotion. Finally, in its collective 36