The International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966. Together with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights it forms the International Bill of Rights. It lays out human rights relating to the workplace, social security, family life, participation in cultural life, and access to housing, food, water, health care and education.
Through Article 15 on the right to participate in cultural life, ICESCR recognises the right to sport. The Covenant also contains articles through which the right to sport can be realised (such as the right to education) and rights which access to sport can help to realise (such as the right to health).
The Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights is composed of 18 independent experts from around the world. Their task is to monitor the implementation of the Convention, in particular through receiving and considering the reports on States who have ratified the treaty.
The below tools are designed to encourage States, National Human Right Institutions and civil society to increase their reporting the Committee on sports and provides guidance on how to do so.
