Step 4 – Assessment: Understanding constraints before assessing compliance Summary of Step Four Element Human Rights Principles Identify contextual factors that limit the enjoyment of the right Indivisibility and interdependence of rights Understand the state’s constraints Determine state compliance Right to a remedy Obligation to respect and protect rights against abuse by third parties Extraterritorial obligations of other states to respect, protect and fulfill ESC rights Obligation to fulfill Types of Assessment Techniques Identify the social, economic, political or cultural conditions that prevent people from enjoying the right or seeking redress for violations of the right (e.g. through capacity gap assessment). Identify how the acts or omissions of third parties or structural dysfunctions impact on the state’s ability to fulfill the right. Draw together findings from previous steps, in light of above elements. The final step draws together and synthesizes all the findings from the previous steps, in order to make a final assessment of a state’s compliance with its obligation to fulfill the right(s) under review. Before addressing the findings, however, this step provides a contextual analysis to reflect on the broader factors bearing an impact on (a) the rights holders’ ability to claim the right(s) under review; and (b) the duty-bearers’ capacity to meet their obligations—beyond shortcomings in the efforts analyzed in the previous two steps. Many of these issues will have been foreshadowed in the previous steps. But they are addressed more comprehensively here by carrying out a political economy analysis, which seeks to ‘reveal the underlying interests, incentives and institutions that enable or frustrate change’. In effect, this kind of analysis attempts to uncover why government efforts have not been more successful. This ensures that the broader context in which the state is operating is taken into account as part of the overall assessment, so that recommendations stemming from the analysis are constructive and well-targeted. This final step is indispensible and represents the crux of the analysis: distinguishing deprivations that might be the result of factors genuinely beyond the control of the state from those for which the state should be held accountable. a) Identifying contextual factors There are often many factors that influence human rights enjoyment reflecting the principle that rights are indivisible and interdependent. Often one right serves as a requisite for the enjoyment of another, and thus denials of one can foster multiple levels of deprivation. Poor and socially excluded groups are less likely to be able to access information, organize, participate in policy debates and obtain redress, for example. Identifying other rights deprivations or socio-economic, political or cultural factors inhibiting people’s ability to enjoy the right(s) under review or to seek redress when they are the victims of a rights violation can help pinpoint the responses reasonably expected of the state. For example, socio-cultural norms can disempower women, limiting their ability to freely make decisions regarding their reproductive health. In the health sector, these underlying factors have often been described as ‘social determinants’—the economic and social conditions Assessing compliance with the obligation to fulfill economic, social and cultural rights 27