INTERNATIONAL LAW & MANAGEMENT REVIEW
VOLUME11
effective monitoring system to ensure that economic and social rights are
being implemented. States are also obliged to prevent and investigate
violations, bring to justice and punish the perpetrators, and provide
reparations for harm and injuries caused. The Maastricht Principles on
Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights specify in Article 13 that:
States must desist from acts and omissions that create a
real risk of nullifying or impairing the enjoyment of
economic, social and cultural rights extraterritorially.
The responsibility of States is engaged where such
nullification or impairment is a foreseeable result of their
conduct. Uncertainty about potential impacts does not
constitute justification for such conduct.
For instance, the CESCR Committee asked Germany, "to do all it
can to ensure that the policies and decisions of those organizations are in
conformity with the obligations of States parties to the Covenant, in
particular the obligations concerning international assistance and
cooperation." 90 Such an obligation to respect suggests that states must
undertake extraterritorial due diligence over corporations on their
territory to ensure that they comply with human rights obligations
regarding the reasonable minimum core of economic and social rights,
and do everything possible to avoid causing harm. All in all, state
practice appears to be emerging in relation to extraterritorial obligation to
respect. The next section discusses the extraterritorial obligation of states
to protect economic and social rights.
The obligation of states to protect the reasonable minimum core of
economic and social rights includes protecting the individual and
collective enjoyment of economic and social rights. For instance, the
Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area
90Comm. on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration Of Reports Submitted
ByParties Under Articles 16 and 17 Of The Covenant, E/C.12/I/Add.68, para. 31 (Sept. 24 2001).
See also Comm. on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration Of Reports Submitted
ByParties Under Articles 16 and 17 Of The Covenant E/C.12/I/Add.54, para. 31 (Dec. 1, 2000);
Comm. on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration Of Reports Submitted ByParties
Under Articles 16 and 17 Of The Covenant, E/C.12/l/Add.43, para. 20 (May 23, 2000); Comm. on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration Of Reports Submitted ByParties Under
Articles 16 and 17 Of The Covenant, E/C.12/l/Add.70, para.24 (Nov. 30, 2001); Comm. on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration Of Reports Submitted ByParties Under
Articles 16 and 17 Of The Covenant, E/C.12/1/Add.72, para.32 (Nov. 30, 2001); Comm. on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration Of Reports Submitted ByParties Under
Articles 16 and 17 Of The Covenant, E/C.12/l/Add.77, para.37 (June 5, 2002); Comm. on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration Of Reports Submitted ByParties Under
Articles 16 and 17 Of The Covenant, E/C.12/Il/Add.79, para.26 (June 5, 2002); It is also notable that
the Maastricht Guidelines on Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights deem a human
rights violation of omission, "[t]he failure of a State to take into account its international legal
obligations in the field of economic, social and cultural rights when entering into bilateral or
multilateral agreements with other States, international organizations or multinational corporations"
Office of The United Commissioner For Human Rights, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:
Handbook for National Human Rights Institutions, U.N. Sales No. E.04.XIV.8 (2005).