The Principle of Non Discrimination as a Vehicle for the Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

International human rights law places a lot of emphasis on economic, social, and cultural rights. By ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the States are obliged to protect the economic, social, and cultural rights of the individuals. This paper analyzes the need to protect these rights and the role international instruments play in conserving them. It further discusses the nature of obligations that the ICESCR puts on the State parties. It also provides the grounds of discrimination that are prohibited under the ICESCR. This paper further tries to establish a link between the economic, social and cultural rights and the Constitution of India and analyzes their fundamental status in our nation. Socio-economic rights are not explicitly mentioned in the Indian Constitution as fundamental rights, but they are included in the Directive Principles of State Policy, which means that the Directive Principles of State Policy consider socio-economic rights to be important and mandatory for the state to take into account when drafting laws for the nation. Several Articles, including 21, 39(a), 41, 45, and 37, provide instances of these rights. The authors have tried their best to focus upon articles relating to cultural rights, which include, Articles 21, 29, 30, 43 and 51A.