CHRGJ and ESCR-Net are pleased to invite you to the launch of an important new publication, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Commentary, Cases and Materials (Oxford University Press, April 2014) This timely volume brings together all essential documents, materials, and case law relating to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and its Optional Protocol, one of the most important human rights instruments in international law. It presents extracts from primary material alongside commentary and analysis, placing the documents in their wider context and situating economic, social, and cultural rights within the broader human rights framework.

We are honored to have the unique opportunity to discuss the book with two of its authors, who will be engaged in a lively conversation with Professor Philip Alston, as they discuss many of the key issues raised in the volume , including:

• Are socio-economic rights still the poor cousins of civil and political rights, or have they finally come of age?
• Are the origins of socio-economic rights recent, ancient, or in-between? Western or universal?
• How far has the socio-economic rights jurisprudence developed and how far does it have to go?
• Just what is justiciable and what is left to the realm of progressive realization?
• How well has the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights performed, and where is there room for improvement?
• How does the ICESCR relate to other international or regional human rights treaties?
• How does the ICESCR relate to specialized regimes like the International Labour Organization?
• When and how can ICESCR rights be lawfully restricted?
• To what extent does the ICESCR apply extraterritorially?
• How does the ICESCR apply to private actors, whether corporations or armed groups?
• How are ICESCR rights measured?