Imagine your government demolishes your home without warning.  You cannot stop it and you you are left on the street. Your neighborhood is covered in garbage and sewage, exposing you and your children to disease but your government refuses to act.

For too many people, the rights to adequate housing, food, water, sanitation, health, work and education are denied on a daily basis. Governments have too often paid only lip service to their obligations under international law to ensure economic, social and cultural rights for all. People living in poverty are often denied their rights and any real opportunity to hold governments accountable.

The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) creates a new international mechanism that will enable people whose rights have been denied or who lack access to an effective remedy in their own country to seek justice through the UN.
Tell your government that if it really wants to ensure access to justice for all human rights and reduce poverty, it should prove it by ratifying the Protocol.

RATIFY THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & CULTURAL RIGHTS & ITS OPTIONAL PROTOCOL
Minister MaiteNkoana-Mashabane
Department of International Relations and Cooperation
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001
Republic of South Africa

Dear Minister,

We, the undersigned, urge you to ensure the realization of economic, social and cultural rights and victims of all human rights abuses are provided with access to effective remedies by becoming Party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its Optional.
By doing this, South Africa will demonstrate a clear commitment to ensuring that all people, particularly those living in poverty, can access justice and hold governments accountable when their rights are denied. It will also strengthen the legal recognition and implementation of economic, social and cultural rights in South Africa and around the world.

Yours sincerely,