The Intersection of Race and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

The International Covenant for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) is widely considered a transformative instrument. Adopted at the cusp of a new world order, the Covenant was conceived as a tool to undo the economic scourges of colonialism. This chapter critically examines the Covenant through a racial lens. In doing so, it unveils how the Covenant—despite its anticolonial history—entrenches rather than combats racism. Despite its proscription of racial discrimination, the Covenant is silent on the structural violence of racism, instead choosing to attribute an unchallengeable naturality to race. The chapter argues that this is a result of the conjunctive relationship between eurocentrism and racism that underpins the drafting records and its implementation practices of the Covenant, seen most prominently in the continuing discourses of civilization and economic development. Ultimately, the chapter considers how the Covenant can be reimagined as an antiracist instrument.