Mary Robinson and Paul Hunt: Our duty by law is to make poverty history

A quiet revolution is taking place within international human rights. The traditional focus on civil and political rights - the prohibition of torture, the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech - has been broadened to include economic, social and cultural rights, such as the human rights to education, food, shelter, and the highest attainable standard of health.

Both groups of rights are integral elements of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

But, throughout the Cold War, civil and political rights received most attention. Economic, social and cultural rights were neglected and little understood.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall, this began to change. Cautiously, the international community has given renewed attention to economic, social and cultural rights.

In 1993 it re-affirmed the holistic conception of human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration. Since 1998, the UN has appointed independent experts - known as special rapporteurs - on the rights to education, food, shelter and health to help states better promote and protect these rights.

In the regional human rights systems of Europe, the Americas and Africa, economic, social and cultural rights have broken new ground. At the national level, too, countries such as Norway, Finland, South Africa and India, have taken important measures to protect the economic, social and cultural rights of their citizens.

But the most far-reaching change has been within civil society. Today, in every region of the world, including in the United States, civil society groups are organising around economic, social and cultural rights. They have understood that a broad spectrum of human rights can empower individuals and humanise the forces of globalisation.

Importantly, long-established international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, which have historically focused on civil and political rights, have added economic, social and cultural rights to their agendas.

After being neglected for so long, it is going to take time for our grasp of economic, social and cultural rights to be as firm as our understanding of civil and political rights. But at least these vital human rights have begun to move from the margins to the mainstream.

Last year, at a Make Poverty History rally in Trafalgar Square, London, Nelson Mandela said: "Overcoming poverty is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life."

About 150 countries, including New Zealand, have signed a treaty - the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - that enshrines economic, social and cultural rights.

This treaty, which gives rise to binding legal obligations, recognises that countries are at different levels of economic development. Consequently, it demands of Canada a higher standard than it requires of Chad.

But the covenant anticipates an international minimum threshold - a level consistent with the minimum requirements for human dignity - below which no individual, in any country, should be allowed to fall.

In other words, the covenant - and other human rights instruments - embody the aims of the Make Poverty History campaign and buttresses them with international human rights law.

All countries - developed and developing - that have signed the covenant have a legal obligation to do all they can to eliminate poverty within their borders. They must respect democratic principles, root out corruption, give particular attention to women and girls, avoid race discrimination, and do all they can to establish free primary education and an effective health system accessible to all.

The covenant places an additional responsibility on developed countries. They not only have an obligation to work towards the elimination of poverty within their borders, they also have a legal responsibility to assist those living in poverty beyond their borders. They have a legal obligation to work effectively towards an equitable trade, investment and financial system conducive to the elimination of poverty.

This legal duty of international assistance and co-operation can be traced from the Charter of the United Nations, through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the Millennium Declaration and binding international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The legal obligation is contested. Predictably, developed countries insist that there is no binding human rights duty of international assistance and co-operation, while developing countries retort that there is. The debate is deeply politicised.

The tenor of the international instruments is clear. Making poverty history is not just a question of morality, charity or self-interest. Developed countries have a human rights responsibility, binding in international law, to assist developing countries burdened by poverty.

To be sure, the precise parameters of this legal responsibility are not yet well defined. But the same can be said for many human rights and their corresponding duties.

Without accountability, human rights can become mere window-dressing.

Most countries have human rights accountability mechanisms in relation to the conduct of their governments within their borders. These devices are flawed and need strengthening - especially in relation to economic, social and cultural rights - but in most countries they exist.

However, human rights accountability mechanisms in relation to the conduct of governments beyond their borders are practically non-existent. There is no remotely effective human rights mechanism that holds developed countries to account in relation to their duty of international assistance and co-operation.

Plugging this institutional gap represents one of the most pressing challenges confronting the human rights community.

Developed countries should establish a small independent office - above party politics - to monitor and report publicly on how it discharges its responsibility of international assistance and co-operation. Akin to an ombudsman, the office should report to parliament.

The office should independently monitor whether the country is keeping its promises on development aid; what the government is doing about the skills drain of health professionals from developing to developed countries, which is a subsidy by the poor to the rich; what anti-poverty positions the Government is taking in the World Trade Organisation, International Monetary Fund and World Bank; and if the Government kept its post-tsunami pledges.

This modest initiative would help a government ensure it is keeping its international development promises. It would contribute to making poverty history. And making poverty history - within both developed and developing countries - is the greatest human rights campaign of our time.

* Mary Robinson is a former President of Ireland, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and is now executive director  of Realising Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Paul Hunt, from the University of Waikato and University of Essex in England, is United Nations special rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health.