Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: Why Economic and Social Human Rights?
- I CORE RIGHTS
- II NONDISCRIMINATION
- III META
- 10 Establishing a Social and International Order for the Realization of Human Rights
- 11 Beyond a Minimum Threshold: The Right to Social Equality
- 12 The Right to Development from a Human Rights Approach: Conceptual Bases, Legal Framework, and Contemporary Challenges
- 13 Constitutional Environmental Human Rights: A Descriptive Analysis of 142 National Constitutions
- 14 Conclusion: Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Economic and Social Rights
- Index
- References
11 - Beyond a Minimum Threshold: The Right to Social Equality
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: Why Economic and Social Human Rights?
- I CORE RIGHTS
- II NONDISCRIMINATION
- III META
- 10 Establishing a Social and International Order for the Realization of Human Rights
- 11 Beyond a Minimum Threshold: The Right to Social Equality
- 12 The Right to Development from a Human Rights Approach: Conceptual Bases, Legal Framework, and Contemporary Challenges
- 13 Constitutional Environmental Human Rights: A Descriptive Analysis of 142 National Constitutions
- 14 Conclusion: Reflections on the Theory and Practice of Economic and Social Rights
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Over the past two decades, a growing number of human rights scholars and practitioners have focused on defining the content of the economic and social rights guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), as well as other international human rights instruments. Numerous works now elaborate on the “minimum core content” of these rights, which grouped together form an international human rights-based poverty line (CESCR 2001; Chapman & Russell 2002; Vizard 2006; Bilchitz 2007). Some works also explore the idea of an “adequate” level of social rights, as explicitly guaranteed in the UDHR and the ICESCR (UDHR Article 25; ICESCR Article 11). Both of these approaches to defining economic and social rights describe the content of the rights in terms of a minimum threshold to which a person is entitled without much, if any, regard for the overall equality in the enjoyment of these rights by the people within a society.
Yet, today there is mounting evidence indicating that economic and social inequality adversely affect many dimensions of people's lives (Commission on the Social Determinants of Health [CSDH] 2008; Wilkinson 2005). Indeed, a growing number of studies show that more unequal societies have higher homicide rates; lower life expectancies; lower average standards of health; greater discrimination against women, racial minorities, and other marginalized groups; and lower participation in elections (Wilkinson 2005). These dimensions correlate strikingly closely to human rights recognized in international human rights legal instruments, including the rights to life, health, nondiscrimination, personal security, and political participation. Thus, the research suggests that economic and social inequality adversely affects the enjoyment of human rights. In view of this evidence, it is timely to consider the extent to which the International Bill of Human Rights encompasses a guarantee of some level of economic and social equality – just as it guarantees some level of civil and political equality.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The State of Economic and Social Human RightsA Global Overview, pp. 271 - 305Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013
References
, 2004. “Core Labour Standards and the Transformation of the International Labour Rights Regime,” European Journal of International Law 15: 457–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2008. “Putting Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Back on the Agenda of the United States,” in (Ed.) The Future of Human Rights: U.S. Policy for a New Era, 120–138, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
, 2007. Poverty and Fundamental Rights: The Justification and Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brigham v. State of Vermont, 1997. 692 A.2d 384, Vt.
Brown v. Board of Education, 1954. 347 U.S. 483.
Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. State of New York, 2003. 801 N.E.2d 326, NY App. Div.
Chaoulli v. Quebec Attorney General, 2005. 1 SCR 791.
and (Eds.), 2002. Core Obligations: Building a Framework for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Antwerp and Oxford: Intersentia.Google Scholar
and , 2009. “The Developing World is Poorer Than We Thought, But No Less Successful in the Fight Against Poverty.” The World Bank Development Research Group, Policy Research Working Paper 4703.
, 1990. General Comment No. 3, The nature of the States parties obligations, Article 2(1), UN Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1, December 14.
, 1998. General Comment No. 9, The domestic application of the Covenant, UN Doc. E/C.12/1998/24, December 3.
, 1999. General Comment No. 13, The right to education, Article 13, UN Doc. E/C.12/1999/10, December 8.
, 2000. General Comment No. 14, The right to the highest attainable standard of health, Article 12, UN Doc. E/C.12/2000/4, August 11.
, 2001. Poverty and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. UN Doc. E/C.12/2001/10, May 10.
, 2005. Concluding Observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Bosnia and Herzegovina. UN Doc. E/C.12/BIH/CO/1, November 25.
, 2008. General Comment No. 19, The right to social security, Article 9, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/19, January 30.
, 2009. General Comment No. 20, Non-discrimination in economic, social and cultural rights, Article 2.2, UN Doc. E/C.12/GC/20, July 2.
Corte Constitutional de la República de Colombia (Constitutional Court of Colombia), Sentencia (Judgment) No. T-760/2008 (2008).
, 1995. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cutural Rights: A Perspective on its Development, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
, 2008. Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health, Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
, 1999. “Article 28,” in Gudmundur Alfredsson and Asbjørn Eide (Eds.) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Common Standard of Achievement, 567–635, The Hague: Martinus NijHoff Publishers.Google Scholar
, 2005. “Income Poverty and Social Exclusion in the EU25,” Statistics in Focus 13: 1–2.Google Scholar
, 2008. “The Vulnerable Subject: Anchoring Equality in the Human Condition,” Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 20: 1–24.Google Scholar
, 2010. “The Vulnerable Subject and the Responsive State,” Emory Law Journal 60: 251–275.Google Scholar
, 2008. Human Rights Transformed: Positive Rights and Positive Duties, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2009. “Engendering Socio-Economic Rights,” South African Journal of Human Rights 25(3): 410–441.Google Scholar
, 2002. A World Made New: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks.Google Scholar
Government of the Republic of South Africa v Grootboom, 2001. (1) SA 46 (CC).
, 1996. General Comment No. 25, The right to participate in public affairs, voting rights and the equal right to public service, Article 25, UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.7, July 12.
, 2008. “Annual Report of the Special Rapporeur on the Right to Health to the UN Human Rights Council,” UN Doc. A/HRC/7/11, January 31.
, 2009. “Missed Opportunities: Human Rights and the Commission on Social Determinants of Health,” Global Health Promotion 16: 36–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2006. “‘The Last Line of Defense for [Which] Citizens’: Accountability, Equality, and the Right to Health in Chaoulli,” Osgoode Hall Law Journal 44: 349–375.Google Scholar
, and , 2003. “Does it matter that we don't agree on the definition of poverty? A comparison of four approaches,” Working Paper Number 107, Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
, 2009. “The Past and Future of the Separation of Human Rights into Categories,” Maryland Journal of International Law 24: 209–243.Google Scholar
, 2006. “Financing Health Care: For All, for Some, for Patients or for Profits?” in Lois L. Ross, Maureen Johnson and William Meyer (Eds.), The Global Rights to Health: Canadian Development Report 2007, pp. 59-83, Ottawa: Renouf Publishing.Google Scholar
, 1999. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting and Intent, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
. and , 2011. “Building America – One Wealth Quintile at a Time,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 6(1): 9–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
, 1993. U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary, Kehl, Germany: N.P. Engel.Google Scholar
, 2000. Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2007a. “Human Rights and Human Capabilities,” Harvard Human Rights Journal 20: 21–24.Google Scholar
, 2007b. “The Capabilities Approach and Ethical Cosmopolitanism: A Response to Noah Feldman,” Yale Law Journal Pocket Part 117: 123–129.Google Scholar
, 2004. Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework, HR/PUB/04/1, Geneva: OHCHR.Google Scholar
, 2006. Principles and Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies, HR/PUB/06/12, Geneva: OHCHR.Google Scholar
and , 2011. “Global Inequality: Beyond the Bottom Billion: A Rapid Review of Income Distribution in 141 Countries,” New York: UNICEF Division of Policy and Practice.
, 2001. “Feminism and Liberalism Revisted: Has Martha Nussbaum Got it Right?” Constellations 8(2): 249–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2008. “Free Lunch Isn't so Cool, So Some Students Go Hungry.” The New York Times. Retrieved from .
, 2004. “Approaches to Poverty: A Note from the ‘Development’ Perspective,” International Council on Human Rights Policy, Researchers’ Meeting on Poverty, Development, Rights, Geneva, November 24–25.
Rogers v. Swindon NHS Primary Care Trust, 2006. EWA Civ 392.
Rose v. Council for Better Education, 1989. 790 S.W.2d 186, Ky.
, 2011. “Does Income Inequality Cause Health and Social Problems?” London: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
, 2010. “Beware False Prophets: Equality, the Good Society and the Spirit Level,” London: Policy Exchange.
, 2005. “Human Rights and Capabilities,” Journal of Human Development 6(2): 151–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 1999. “Article 2,” in Gudmundar Alfredson and Asbjørn Eide (Eds.) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 75–87, Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.Google Scholar
, 1989. “Basic Needs Strategies, Human Rights, and the Right to Development,” Human Rights Quarterly 11: 347–374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2010. “Global Poverty and the New Bottom Billion: What If Three-Quarters of the World's Poor Live in Middle-Income Countries?” Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, IDS Working Paper 349.
, 2000. Human Rights and Human Development, Human Development Report 2000, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, 2000. United Nations Millennium Declaration, Res 55/2, UN Doc A/RES/55/2.
, 2011. “Poverty.” Retrieved from .
, 2005. Non-Discrimination and Equality iin the View of the UN Human Rights Treaty Bodies, Antwerp: Intersentia.Google Scholar
, 2006. Poverty and Human Rights: Sen's ‘Capability Approach’ Explored, Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, 2010. The World Health Report 2010 – Health Systems Financing: The path to universal coverage, Geneva: World Health Organization.
, 2005. The Impact of Inequality: How to Make Sick Societies Healthier, Abingdon, UK: Routledge Press.Google Scholar
and , 2009. The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
, 2010. “How poor is ‘poor’? Towards a rights-based poverty line,” New Economics Foundation. Retrieved from .
, 2000. Crying Out for Change: Voices of the Poor, Deepa Narayan (Ed)., Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, 2001. Attacking Poverty: World Development Report 2001, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, 2003. Making Services Work for Poor People, New York: Oxford University Press and The World Bank.Google Scholar
, 2005. Equity and Development: World Development Report 2006, New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
, , and , 2011. “Colombia – Judicial Protection of the Right to Health: An Elusive Promise?” in Alicia Yamin and Siri Gloppen (Eds.) Litigating Health Rights: Can Courts Bring More Justice to Health?, 103–131, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
, 2008. “The Minimum Core of Economic and Social Rights: A Concept in Search of Content,” Yale Journal of International Law 33: 113–175.Google Scholar
, 2009. “Freedom, Want, and Economic and Social Rights: Frame and Law,” Maryland Journal of International Law 24:182–208.Google Scholar
- 22
- Cited by