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Guía de comunicación individual

El Comité de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (CESCR) puede considerar denuncias presentadas por personas que aleguen que se han violado sus derechos del ICESCR. Específicamente, el Comité está facultado para considerar denuncias de que un Estado Parte del Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (OP-ICESCR) ha violado uno de los derechos humanos contenidos en el Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales. Derechos Culturales (ICESCR).

En esta página puedes encontrar:

 La página se actualizó por última vez el 26 de abril de 2021.

EL PROTOCOLO OPCIONAL

El Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales entró en vigor el 5 de mayo de 2013. El tratado faculta al CESCR para recibir y considerar denuncias, conocidas como “comunicaciones”.

El OP-ICESCR cuenta actualmente con 46 signatarios y 26 partes, cuya lista puede consultarse aquí..

La ratificación más reciente fue la de Maldivas, el 23 de diciembre de 2020. La firma más reciente fue la de Chipre, el 29 de enero de 2021.

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Protocolo Facultativo a las firmas y ratificaciones del ICESCR (incluidas las adhesiones)

GUÍA PASO A PASO DEL PROCEDIMIENTO DE DENUNCIA INDIVIDUAL

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El proceso de comunicación individual comienza con la presentación de una queja (o "petición") al Comité.

Las denuncias deben presentarse ante la Sección de Peticiones y Consultas de la Oficina del Alto Comisionado para los Derechos Humanos.
No tienen que ser presentados por abogados y el Comité se esfuerza explícitamente por adoptar un "enfoque centrado en la víctima" y "abstenerse de imponer formalidades innecesarias". El Comité ha publicado recientemente un nuevo formulario de denuncias individuales, así como una guía sobre el proceso de presentación de una comunicación individual. Se puede acceder a ambos a continuación:

Una vez recibido, la Sección de Peticiones y Consultas registrará una queja. Ocasionalmente, las denuncias no se registrarán, por ejemplo, si están dirigidas a un Estado que no es parte del Protocolo Facultativo.

Al presentar una denuncia, es posible pedir al Comité que emita una solicitud para que el Estado parte en cuestión tome medidas provisionales. Al igual que un interdicto, el propósito de las medidas cautelares es “evitar posibles daños irreparables a la víctima o víctimas de las presuntas violaciones” antes de que el Comité haya considerado la comunicación (artículo 5 PF-PIDESC). Si un Estado parte no responde a una solicitud del Comité de adoptar medidas provisionales, estará violando el artículo 5 del Protocolo Facultativo. Sin embargo, debe subrayarse que la decisión de un Comité de solicitar medidas provisionales “no implica una determinación sobre la admisibilidad o sobre el fondo de la comunicación”. Consulte las directrices del Comité sobre medidas provisionales para obtener más detalles.

De conformidad con el artículo 8 (1) del Protocolo Facultativo, el Comité también puede aceptar presentaciones de terceros (escritos de amicus curiae). Se puede acceder a la guía del Comité sobre intervenciones de terceros aquí.

RECURSOS ADICIONALES

En 2020, Sandra Liebenberg, exmiembro del Comité, publicó un artículo titulado “Entre la soberanía y la rendición de cuentas: la jurisprudencia emergente del Comité de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales de las Naciones Unidas bajo el Protocolo Facultativo”. El artículo es muy recomendable, particularmente por su análisis detallado del enfoque que ha seguido el Comité al considerar tanto la admisibilidad como el fondo de las comunicaciones. Se puede acceder aquí.

En 2016, Pretoria University Law Press (PULP) publicó “El Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales: un comentario”. El comentario fue editado por Malcolm Langford, Bruce Porter, Rebecca Brown y Julieta Rossi y está disponible en su totalidad. incluye los siguientes capítulos:

  • Malcolm Langford, Bruce Porter, Rebecca Brown y Julieta Rossi
    Introducción

  • Catarina de Alburquerque y Malcolm Langford

    Los orígenes del Protocolo Facultativo

  • Christian Courtis y Julieta Rossi

    Procedimiento de Quejas Individuales

  • Donna J. Sullivan

    El procedimiento de consulta

  • Malcolm Langford, Cheryl Lorens y Natasha Telson

    Procedimiento Interestatal

  • Bruce Porter

    Razonabilidad y Artículo 8(4)

  • Malcolm Langford

    Obligaciones Sustantivas

  • Rebecca Brown, Lilian Chenwi y Michael Ashley Stein

    Igualdad y No Discriminación

  • Viviana Krsticevic y Brian Griffey

    Medidas provisionales

  • Viviana Krsticevic y Brian Griffey

    Recomendaciones correctivas

  • Başak Çalı

    Aplicación

La Academia de Derecho Internacional Humanitario y Derechos Humanos de Ginebra también ha elaborado un documento informativo sobre el Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (2013). Se puede acceder aquí.

Sobre la redacción del Protocolo Facultativo, véase Claire Mahon, Progress at the Front: The Draft Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 8 HUM. RTS. yo Rev. 617 (2008). 

Para obtener detalles sobre la historia del debate sobre un Protocolo Facultativo del icescr, véase Catarina de Albuquerque, Chronicle of an Announced Birth: The Coming into Life of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: The Missing Piece de la Carta Internacional de Derechos Humanos, 32 HUM. RTS. P. 144 (2010). 

En 2009, el Nordic Journal of Human Rights produjo un número especial (Volumen 27, No: 1) en el que publicaron ocho artículos sobre el Protocolo Facultativo, a los que se puede acceder aquí. Los ocho artículos incluyen:

  • Malcolm Langford
¿Cerrar la brecha? Introducción al Protocolo Facultativo del Pacto Internacional de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales

  • Pío Langa
Tomando la Dignidad en Serio. Reflexiones judiciales sobre el Protocolo Facultativo del PIDESC

  • Bruce Porter
La razonabilidad del artículo 8(4). Adjudicación de reclamaciones desde los márgenes

  • Christian Courtis y Magdalena Sepúlveda
¿Son las obligaciones extraterritoriales revisables en virtud del Protocolo Facultativo del PIDESC?

  • Beth A. Simmons
¿Deben los Estados ratificar? Proceso y Consecuencias del Protocolo Facultativo del PIDESC

  • Stein Evju
¿Debe Noruega ratificar el Protocolo Facultativo del icescr? Esa es la pregunta

  • Inge Lorange Patrocinador
Ideales e Implementación: ¿Ratificar Otro Procedimiento de Quejas?

  • Martin Scheinin y Malcolm Langford
¿Evolución o revolución? Extrapolación de la experiencia del Comité de Derechos Humanos

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.