Book Reviews Craven, Matthew C.R. The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. xxix, 406. Index. $80. Given that the two sets of human rights are, at least according to UN mythology, equally important, remarkably little sustained scholarly research has been devoted to economic, social and cultural rights. Craven's book, up to date as of mid-1994, is an exhaustively researched, carefully written and nuanced review of the seventeen years since the Covenant's entry into force and the first seven years of existence of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR Committee). Ian Brownlie justifiably lauds the work in his `Editor's Preface'. He is not correct, however, in saying that `the whole extended family of Covenant-related topics is examined' (p. v). In fact, the author has followed the rather odd example of McGoldrick in his companion volume (both written as doctoral dissertations at Nottingham) on the Human Rights Committee, of dealing only with a selection of the rights recognized in the Covenant. Thus, it covers articles 2 and 3 (non-discrimination), 6 (work), 7 (conditions of work), 8 (trade unions), and 11 (an adequate standard of living). The reasons given for this limited focus (p. 2) are not wholly convincing and the lack of comprehensiveness of the coverage is a definite shortcoming. Some 20 per cent of the book is devoted explicitly to the role and functioning of the ESCR Committee. Craven is generous in concluding that the Committee has `in a relatively short period of time - transformed the supervision system beyond recognition', thereby achieving `one of the most developed and potentially effective reporting mechanisms of all of the human rights supervisory bodies' (p. 102). But he is also quick to point to the shortcomings of that system: the inadequacy of states' reports, their tardiness in reporting, the lack of expertise within the Secretariat, the unevenness of the Committee in terms of membership, and, most important of all, the breadth of the rights contained in the Covenant and the lack of case law at the national and international levels. He is a strong supporter of the creation of a complaints procedure (modelled upon the procedure contained in the Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights), which he would consider to be `the single most important development in the history of the Covenant' (pp. 105, 358). He identifies the extent of NGO participation in the Committee's work as `perhaps the most controversial aspect' of its activities (p. 80). The book's greatest strength is that it provides the only systematic examination available in any language of the `jurisprudence' generated by the Committee in relation to each of the specific rights analysed. P.A.
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