CHAPTER III ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS PREFACE: The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights issued pursuant to the United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. (2200A XXI) on December 16, 1966, which was acceded to by the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain under Law No. 10 of 2007, is the first binding international instrument that combines a number of rights related to economic, social and cultural fields. The jurisprudence of international human rights refers to these rights as the second generation rights that followed civil and political rights. Economic, social and cultural rights include human rights and fundamental freedoms related to the right to work, the right to social security, the right to protect and provide assistance to the family, in addition to the right to health, right to education, as well as cultural rights. Accordingly, this Chapter will address some of these economic, social and cultural rights which form the foundations of decent life and adequate standard of living for the Bahraini community, as well as the challenges and problems related to these rights. The most important rights are the right to work, in terms of prevention of forced labor, and optional and consensual acceptance of paid work, in addition to safe and healthy working conditions; the right to live according to decent standards of living that safeguard human dignity through the provision of adequate housing and adequate food and water; and the right to health through access to adequate and quality health services and use of health facilities and services on an equal footing and non-discrimination basis. This Chapter will also address the right to education in terms of making education compulsory and free in the primary stage, and readily accessible in secondary and university education stage, towards progressive realization of free and compulsory secondary and university education. In view of the seriousness of the crime of trafficking in persons which haunts the world’s conscience and constitutes a form of modern slavery and a flagrant violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms, this Chapter deals with this crime in terms of the ability of the existing national legislation to prevent and combat it. 75