INTRODUCTION

The preceding three chapters have examined the procedural dimension of the State obligation to give practical legal effect to the inherent material conditions of life. This and the next chapter will continue to discuss its substantive dimension in the light of ESC rights jurisprudence. As explained in the introductory section of Part two, the substantive dimension of the State obligation to respect the material conditions of life basically concerns ensuring the essential minimum guarantees provided through ESC rights regime. The core aspect of this obligation particularly consists in the State's obligation to secure, both in law and fact, a dignified life (dignified existence) for every human being within its jurisdiction. This, in turn, has two major components. The first component concerns the general obligation of the State to ensure these essential material conditions of life for every person; the second component concerns the specially aggravated obligation of the State towards vulnerable persons. This Chapter will deal with the first one and the second one will be considered in the next Chapter. Accordingly, this Chapter will examine the content and scope of the State's obligation to ensure a dignified life in the light of ESC rights jurisprudence. The discussion starts with brief explanation of the conception of a dignified life with the view to help the reader appreciate the justifications behind the selection of the cases discussed in this Chapter and the nature and scope of the State obligations examined in the subsequent sections. However, because of the broad nature of the notion of the dignified life and its implications on the scope of the obligation of the State, it is hardly possible to exhaustively discuss all the relevant cases to this effect. So, the discussion here will focus mainly only on the general and major aspects of its contents and implications. Then, the next Chapter will examine its further imports in the context of the rights of vulnerable persons.

THE CONCEPTION OF DIGNIFIED LIFE

The notion of a dignified life deployed in this Chapter and throughout this study is drawn from the case law of the IACtHR.