Summary:Adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI)
of 16 December 1966
entry into force 3 January 1976, in accordance with article 27
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Article
9
The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone to social security, including social
insurance.
Article 10
The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize that:
1. The widest possible protection
and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and
fundamental group unit of society, particularly for its establishment and while
it is responsible for the care and education of dependent children. Marriage
must be entered into with the free consent of the intending spouses.
2. Special protection should be
accorded to mothers during a reasonable period before and after childbirth.
During such period working mothers should be accorded paid leave or leave with
adequate social security benefits.
3. Special measures of protection
and assistance should be taken on behalf of all children and young persons
without any discrimination for reasons of parentage or other conditions.
Children and young persons should be protected from economic and social
exploitation. Their employment in work harmful to their morals or health or
dangerous to life or likely to hamper their normal development should be
punishable by law. States should also set age limits below which the paid
employment of child labour should be prohibited and punishable by law.
Article 11
1. The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for
himself and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to
the continuous improvement of living conditions. The States Parties will take
appropriate steps to ensure the realization of this right, recognizing to this
effect the essential importance of international co-operation based on free
consent.
2. The States Parties to the present
Covenant, recognizing the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger,
shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures,
including specific programmes, which are needed:
(a) To improve methods of
production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of
technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the
principles of nutrition and by developing or reforming agrarian systems in such
a way as to achieve the most efficient development and utilization of natural
resources;
(b) Taking into account the problems
of both food-importing and food-exporting countries, to ensure an equitable
distribution of world food supplies in relation to need.
Article 12
1. The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest
attainable standard of physical and mental health.
2. The steps to be taken by the
States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this
right shall include those necessary for:
(a) The provision for the reduction
of the stillbirth-rate and of infant mortality and for the healthy development
of the child;
(b) The improvement of all aspects
of environmental and industrial hygiene;
(c) The prevention, treatment and
control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases;
(d) The creation of conditions which
would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of
sickness.
Article 13
1. The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that
education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality
and the sense of its dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms. They further agree that education shall enable all
persons to participate effectively in a free society, promote understanding,
tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious
groups, and further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of
peace.
2. The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize that, with a view to achieving the full realization of this
right:
(a) Primary education shall be
compulsory and available free to all;
(b) Secondary education in its
different forms, including technical and vocational secondary education, shall
be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means,
and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education;
(c) Higher education shall be made
equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means,
and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education;
(d) Fundamental education shall be
encouraged or intensified as far as possible for those persons who have not
received or completed the whole period of their primary education;
(e) The development of a system of
schools at all levels shall be actively pursued, an adequate fellowship system
shall be established, and the material conditions of teaching staff shall be
continuously improved.
3. The States Parties to the present
Covenant undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when
applicable, legal guardians to choose for their children schools, other than
those established by the public authorities, which conform to such minimum
educational standards as may be laid down or approved by the State and to
ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with
their own convictions.
4. No part of this article shall be
construed so as to interfere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to
establish and direct educational institutions, subject always to the observance
of the principles set forth in paragraph I of this article and to the
requirement that the education given in such institutions shall conform to such
minimum standards as may be laid down by the State.
Article 14
Each State Party to the present
Covenant which, at the time of becoming a Party, has not been able to secure in
its metropolitan territory or other territories under its jurisdiction
compulsory primary education, free of charge, undertakes, within two years, to
work out and adopt a detailed plan of action for the progressive
implementation, within a reasonable number of years, to be fixed in the plan,
of the principle of compulsory education free of charge for all.
Article 15
1. The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone:
(a) To take part in cultural life;
(b) To enjoy the benefits of
scientific progress and its applications;
(c) To benefit from the protection
of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or
artistic production of which he is the author.
2. The steps to be taken by the
States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this
right shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and
the diffusion of science and culture.
3. The States Parties to the present
Covenant undertake to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research
and creative activity.
4. The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the benefits to be derived from the encouragement and
development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and
cultural fields.
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