The United States' Failure to Ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Must the Poor Be Always with Us

This Article proposes that the United States should ratify the ICESCR. The treaty's requirements are to be met over a period of time, according to the abilities of each member state. This ought to eliminate concerns about interference with the United States' sovereignty, and about the methods, costs, and means of implementing the treaty. Part II of this Article provides the context and content of the ICESCR, including its status in the United States. Part III examines the current status of poverty in the United States, and current attempts to address poverty through domestic remedies and legislation. Part IV demonstrates ways in which the ICESCR could effectively address problems faced by poor people in the U. S. Finally, this Article reaches two conclusions from which a solution may follow: there is no legitimate reason for poverty to persist in this country, and the United States is simply out of synch with the rest of the world in its legal approach to poverty. We need not accept poverty as an inevitable fact of life in this country; with the proper legal tools and internalization of the proper norms, we may find that, in fact, we need not always have the poor with us