ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS Chapter - 6 6.1 Following the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly, the then Commission on Human Rights together with the Third Committee of the General Assembly began work on a text which was intended to form the basis of binding treaty obligations. Eventually from this work emerged two independent treaties and protocol in 1966 – International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and an Optional Protocol to the latter document. The Second Optional Protocol to ICCPR was adopted in 1989, and in the year 2008, the Optional Protocol to ICESCR was also adopted by the UN General Assembly. The ICESCR represents a substantial development in respect of human rights, although its language is much more the language of recognition than of obligation. In contrast, the principle of obligation in the ICCPR is more firmly specified. However, the preambles of both the international covenants are virtually identical as they recognize that human rights derive from the inherent dignity of human beings. 6.2 The Constitution of India also elucidates certain Directive Principles of State Policy that are fundamental to the governance of the country. It is the duty of the State to ensure the implementation of these Directive Principles for overall development of its citizens. These are essentially related to economic, social and cultural rights. They include, among others, the right to work; right to education; raising the level of nutrition; and improvement of public health. 6.3 The focus of this chapter is on ‘Right to Health’, ‘Right to Food’, ‘Right to Education’ and ‘Rights of Women and Children’. A. Right to Health 6.4 Intrinsic to the dignity and worth of human beings is the enjoyment of the right to health. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which India is a State Party, specifically recognizes that ‘the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health’ is the right of every human being. It must therefore be treated as a State responsibility, with the State having an obligation to ensure that this right is respected, protected and promoted. Indeed, in the Indian context, the provisions of Article 21 of the Constitution have been judicially interpreted to expand the meaning and scope of the right to life to include the right to health and to make the latter a guaranteed fundamental right which is enforceable by virtue of the constitutional remedy under Article 32 of the Constitution. For the Commission it has been important to link the issue of health to that of human rights. When linked together, more can be 79