Abstract
As of 18 April 2008, 42 of the 158 States parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR or the Covenant), constituting about 27 percent of the States parties to the Covenant, had, between them, entered several declarations and reservations of varying significance to their acceptance of the obligations under the Covenant. Yet, unlike most other human rights treaties the Covenant lacks a specific clause on declarations and reservations. This has given rise to several questions examined in this article. Firstly, what reservations to the ICESCR are permissible or impermissible in international human rights law? Secondly, who should decide whether a reservation under the ICESCR is permissible or impermissible'? Thirdly, if a reservation under the Covenant is impermissible, what is the legal effect of such an impermissible reservation? And finally, are some of the existing State reservations to the Covenant incompatible with the object and purpose of the Covenant (i.e. the Covenant's essential rules, rights and obligations) and thus impermissible? If so, how should reservations incompatible with the object and purpose of the Covenant be treated by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR or the Committee)?