Exercise answers Chapter 2: Economic, social and cultural rights standards 1. Has your country signed and/or ratified the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights? If so, in which year? The answer to this question will be country-specific. Tip: visit the OHCHR Treaty Body database: http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/ and then search for your country. 2. Which countries in the Asia Pacific have ratified the Optional Protocol? As of 31 December 2014, 17 countries had ratified the Optional Protocol, but Mongolia was the only country in the Asia Pacific to have done so. In addition, the Maldives, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste were signatories but were yet to ratify. 3. Review your country’s constitution. Does it protect any ESCR? If so, which ones? Are they fully justiciable? The answer to this question will be country-specific. Tip: “Fully justiciable” means that individuals can go to court if their rights are violated. 4. What number is the general comment on health? General Comment No.14. What number is the general comment on forced evictions? General Comment No.7. 5. Find a concluding observation from another treaty body that relates to ESCR. What does it say? Examples include: • CEDAW: General Recommendation No. 13 on equal remuneration for work of equal value; General Recommendation No. 16 on unpaid women workers in rural and urban family enterprises; General Recommendation No. 24 on women and health; General Recommendation No. 29 on the economic consequences of marriage, family relations and their dissolution. • CERD: General Recommendation No. 25 on gender-related dimensions of racial discrimination; General Recommendation No. 23 on the rights of indigenous peoples; General Recommendation No. 22 on article 5 of the Convention on refugees and displaced persons. • CRC: General Comment No. 15 on the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health; General Comment No. 17 on the right of the child to rest, leisure, play, recreational activities, cultural life and the arts; General Comment No. 4 on adolescent health and development. 6. In what year did the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights report on the importance of social protection measures in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)? 2010. Exercise answers | 169