11 Conclusion
163. In a culture of respect for human rights, the
economic. social and cultural rights embodied in the International
Covenant should not be regarded as the poor cousins of the civil
and political rights incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights
Act. As we have emphasised repeatedly in this report, the two
sets of rights are not distinct and should not be divided.
164. What our inquiry into the UK's reporting process
under the ICESCR has most particularly revealed is that insufficient
attention is currently given within government to the ways in
which these rights can be used to provide a point of reference
in the development of policy and legislation.
165. There are ways in which this situation can be
ameliorated. We recommend that ministerial responsibility for
the monitoring of compliance with the ICESCR be transferred to
the Department of Constitutional Affairs. We recommend that it,
together with the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights,
should develop ways of measuring, with some degree of objectivity,
progress in realising the Covenant rights.
166. We also recommend that, in the preparation of
legislation, government departments should look beyond the range
of the Convention rights to the wider international obligations
which the UK has accepted in the human rights field. The examination
of proposed legislation against these standards should be made
explicit in the explanatory notes to Bills.
167. More widely, we recommend that attention to
the Covenant rights should be reinvigorated throughout the public
sector. The new Commission for Equality and Human Rights should
regard this as a key task—the Covenant rights in particular
can provide a framework which unites the concerns of both "equality"
and of "human rights". The government, as well as the
Commission, needs to promote the Covenant rights as a set of positive
guarantees and aspirations—as a standard under which the
endeavours of Parliament, the government, public authorities and
civil society can unite.
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