Contextualizing the Cassese Report: the dictatorship that changed the United Nations human rights system and its legacy in monitoring economic, social and cultural rights

This chapter explains the key reasons underpinning the low impact of the Cassese Report on foreign aid and its relationship with human rights violations in Chile during Pinochet's dictatorship. Through the lenses of the intergovernmental decisions establishing the mandates and scope of competences of special procedures, the analysis demonstrates the absence of political will to equate the importance granted to civil and political rights with that granted to economic, social and cultural rights. The progress to mitigate this imbalance since the time of publication of the Cassese Report has been quantitative rather than qualitative. While economic, social and cultural rights have gained prominence over the years, most advances remain insufficient, especially regarding the role of business in human rights abuses. As long as the political decisions adopted within the human rights monitoring system do not implement the indivisibility of all rights, it will be very difficult to achieve substantial progress in this field.