The General Comment No. 24 (2017) on State obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the context of business activities

This contribution aims to give a brief analysis of the General Comment No 24 (2017) on state obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the context of business activities, adopted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The analysis will be focused on some of the most interesting aspects of the General Comment. The first part will analyse the states’ obligations to protect human rights against violations perpetrated by third parties, which plays a seminal role as to the prevention of harms committed by business entities. The second part of the contribution will be focused on the extraterritorial dimension of states’ obligations stemming from the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: indeed, this dimension receives an unprecedented recognition in the General Comment No 24 (2017).