UNITED NATIONS E Economic and Social Council Distr. E/C.12/1998/24, CESCR General comment 9 3 December 1998 Original: ENGLISH The domestic application of the Covenant : . 03/12/98. E/C.12/1998/24, CESCR General comment 2. Convention Abbreviation: CESCR COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ON December 1998 SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES ARISING IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS nature its General of States Comment parties’ No. 3 obligations (1990) (art. on 2, para. in order to give effect to their treaty obligations. the 1, of the Covenant)! the Committee addressed issues relating to the nature and scope of States parties’ obligations. The present general comment seeks to elaborate further certain elements of the earlier statement. The central obligation in relation to the Covenant is for States parties to give effect to the rights recognized therein. By requiring Governments to do so “by all appropriate means”, the Covenant adopts a broad and flexible approach which enables the particularities of the legal and administrative systems of each State, as well as other relevant considerations, to be taken into account. 1 26 E/19991/23, annex |Il. carp ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS HANDBOOK 3. Questions relating to the domestic application of the Covenant must be considered in the light of two in article 27 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties’, is that "[A] party may not invoke the provisions of its internal law as justification for its failure to perform a treaty”. In other words, States should modify the domestic legal order as necessary A. The duty to give effect to the Covenant in the domestic legal order In international human rights law must be borne in mind. Thus the Covenant norms must be recognized in appropriate ways within the domestic legal order, appropriate means of redress, or remedies, must be available to any aggrieved individual or group, and appropriate means of ensuring governmental accountability must be put in place. principles of international law. The first, as reflected General comment No. 9 The application domestic of the Covenant * 1. Butthis flexibility coexists with the obligation upon each State party to use all the means at its disposal to give effect to the rights recognized in the Covenant. In this respect, the fundamental requirements. of RIGHTS Nineteenth session Geneva, 16 November-4 Agenda item 3 9. (General Comments) The second principle is reflected Universal Declaration of Human to which “Everyone has the in article 8 of the Rights, according right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law", The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights contains no direct counterpart to article 2, paragraph 3 (b), of the international Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which obligates States parties to, inter alia, “develop the possibilities of judicial remedy”. Nevertheless, a State party seeking to justify its failure to provide any domestic legal remedies for violations of economic, social and cultural rights would need to show either that such remedies are not “appropriate means" z United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 1155, p. 331.