Reasserting the Right to Adequate Clothing in International Human Rights Law

Abstract

Through examining the practice of the United Nation’s Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), this paper reasserts the ‘forgotten’ right to adequate clothing as a distinct right deriving from Article 11 (1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). In doing so, this paper traces and explains how the right to adequate clothing has ceased to feature in reporting and monitoring under the ICESCR and it suggests that the right has been overlooked, rather than consciously excluded. The paper argues that the right must be reasserted for three reasons. Firstly, an accurate interpretation of the ICESCR requires the recognition of a distinct right to adequate clothing. Secondly, a right to adequate clothing is the only human right which can effectively respond to the specific harms which stem from inadequate clothing. Thirdly, and crucially, clothing is a prerequisite for the enjoyment of human rights generally. Consequently, the right to adequate clothing must be reintegrated into the ICESCR’s reporting guidelines to allow effective monitoring and to engender the institutional development of this right.

Keywords: clothing, the right to adequate clothing, the right to an adequate standard of living, Article 11 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), United Nation’s Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR), ICESCR reporting guidelines