Analysis of the Challenges and Dilemmas in the Categorization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Authors

  • Bimbo OGUNBANJO LAGOS STATE UNIVERSITY, LAGOS, NIGERIA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31973/052x5y86

Keywords:

Human Rights, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Civil and Political Rights, States, Dispute Resolution

Abstract

This paper discusses the limitations associated with the basic classification of human rights into several categories. The topic of whether international trends have an impact on the State's view of the significance of implementing rights through the acceptance of individual complaint procedures is a complex one. Starting with an acknowledgment of the infinite extent of the issue, this paper displays a belief in the fallacious conceptions of differences in human rights. It investigates and assesses the institutional contribution to the advancement of human rights through a chronological analysis of historical processes that give rise to changes in the 20th century. To address this particular distinction, this paper looks to the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Program of Action and the new Optional Protocol for validation and endorsement. By highlighting many similarities in the language and nature of State responsibilities, it challenges the reader to consider whether non-justiciability provides a basis in the first place. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the function of dispute resolution mechanisms during the implementation phase. From a practical standpoint, it compels the reader to contemplate if the committee procedures outlined in international conventions serve just as symbolic representations of non-cooperation by States or are put into effect. This paper ultimately presents the reader with some thought-provoking material in the shape of the dichotomy between enforcement and justiciability.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Adebimpe, A. (2022). Globalization and Human Rights. New York: Hopeland Books.

Adetutu, C. (2023). Minority Rights in a Changing World: A Comparative Legal Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1985).

Aiken, W. and LaFolette, H., eds. (1996). World Hunger and Morality. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Alston, P. (1987). Out of the Abyss: The Challenges Confronting the New UN Committee on Economic and Social Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 9: 332–81.

Arneson, R. (1990). Is Work Special? Justice and the Distribution of Employment. American Political Science Review, 84: 1127–47.

Baderin, M.A., and McCorquodale, R. (2007). The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Forty Years of Development, in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action, edited by Mashood A. Baderin, and Robert McCorquodale, 3–24. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Baderin, M.A. (2007). The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Implementation of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Africa, in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action, edited by Mashood A. Baderin, and Robert McCorquodale, 139–66. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Baoku, W.G. and Uche, B. (2022). Long-Term Consequences of Human Rights. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bayefsky, A. (2021). The UN Human Rights Treaty System: Universality at the Crossroads. Ardsley, NY: Transnational.

Beetham, D. (1995). What Future for Economic and Social Rights? Political Studies, XLIII: 41–60.

Bentham, J. (1970). Anarchial Fallacies, in A. Melden, ed., Human Rights. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Churchill, R.R. and Khaliq, U. (2015). Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: The Current Use and Future Potential of the Collective Complaints Mechanism of the European Social Charter, in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, edited by Mayfield A. Thomas, 195–240. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Council of Europe. (1950). European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Council of Europe. (1961). European Social Charter. Received enough ratifications to become operative in 1965.

Council of Europe. (1965). European Social Charter. Received enough ratifications to become operative in 1965.

Cranston, M. (1967). Human Rights, Real and Supposed, in D. D. Raphael, ed., Political Theory and the Rights of Man. London: Macmillan.

Cranston, M. (1973). What Are Human Rights? London: Bodley Head.

Craven, M. (2011). The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, edited by Asbjorn Eide, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas, 455–72. Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.

Davis, D. (2004). The Case Against the Inclusion of Socio-Economic Demands in a Bill of Rights Except as Directive Principles. South African Journal of Human Rights, 8: 475–90.

Dershowitz, A. (2014). Rights from Wrongs: The Origins of Human Rights in the Experience of Injustice. New York: Basic Books.

Donnelly, J. (2003) [1985]. Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice, 2nd edn. Ithaca, NY and London: Cornell University Press.

Eide, A. (1989). The Realisation of Social and Economic Rights and the Minimum Threshold Approach, Human Rights Law Journal, 10: 35–51.

Eide, A. (2011). Economic and Social Rights As Legal Rights, in Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, edited by Asbjorn Eide, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas, 29–54. Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.

Eide, A. and Rosas, A. (2011). Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Universal Challenge, in Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, edited by Asbjorn Eide, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas, 3–7. Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.

Fabre, C. (2010). Social Rights Under the Constitution–Government and the Decent Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Gallup Organization. (2002). Gallup Poll of the Islamic World.

Gomez, V. (2007). Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Inter-American System, in Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Action, edited by Mashood A. Baderin, and Robert McCorquodale, 167–94. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Gould, C. (2004). Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Griffin, J. (1996). Value Judgement: Improving Our Ethical Beliefs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Griffin, J. (2001a). Discrepancies Between the Best Philosophical Account of Human Rights and the International Law of Human Rights. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.

Griffin, J. (2001b). First Steps in an Account of Human Rights. European Journal of Philosophy, 9(3): 306–27.

Halstead, P. (2002). Human Property Rights. Convenyancer and Property Lawyer, 23: 153–73.

Henkin, L. (1994). Economic Rights Under the United States Constitution, Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, 32: 97–132.

Heyns, C. and Viljoen, F. (2022). The Impact of the United Nations Human Rights Treaties on the Domestic Level. Human Rights Quarterly, 23(3): 483–535.

Hodgson, D. (2008). The Human Right to Education. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate Publishing.

Holmes, S., and Sunstein, C. (2009). The Cost of Rights: Why Liberty Depends on Taxes. New York: Norton.

Hopkins, K. (2002). Shattering the divide-when judges go too far. http://www.derebus.org.za/ archives/2002Mar/articles/dicide.htm. Accessed on 23rd January 2024.

Howard, R. (1987). The Full-Belly Thesis: Should Economic Rights Take Priority over Civil and Political Rights? Human Rights Quarterly, 5: 467–90.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966).

Jaichand, V. (2004). The Promise in the Right to Vote. Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, 26: 1–16.

Leckie, S. (2008). Another Step Toward Indivisibility: Identifying the Key Features of Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 20(1): 81–124.

Liebenberg, S. (2011). The Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Domestic Legal Systems, in Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, edited by Asbjorn Eide, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas, 55–84. Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.

Liebenberg, S. (2015). Needs, Rights and Transformation: Adjudicating Social Rights. New York: Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice Working Paper Economic and Social Rights Series No. 8.

Mill, J. (1848). Principles of Political Economy. London: Longmans, Green and Co.

Morris, C. (2008). An Essay on the Modern State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mureinik, E. (2004). Beyond a Charter of Luxuries: Economic Rights in the Constitution. South African Journal of Human Rights, 8: 464–71.

Nickel, J. (1987). Making Sense of Human Rights. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Nickel, J. (1993). A Human Rights Approach to World Hunger, in Will Aiken and Hugh Lafollette, eds., World Hunger and Morality, 2nd edn. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Nussbaum, M. (2011). Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

O’Neill, O. (1988). Hunger, Needs, and Rights, in S. Luper-Foy, ed., Problems of International Justice. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Odinkalu, C.A. (2013). Analysis of Paralysis or Paralysis by Analysis? Implementing Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 23(2): 327–69.

Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2008).

Organization of American States (1948). American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man.

Orend, B. (2011). Human Rights: Concept and Context. Peterborough, ON: Broadview Press.

Peffer, R. (1978). A Defense to Rights to Well-Being. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 8 (1): 65–87.

Pew Research Center. (2003). Global Attitudes Project.

Pogge, T. (2012). World Poverty and Human Rights. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Rawls, J. 1999. The Law of Peoples (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).

Rosas, A. and Scheinin, M. (2011). Implementation Mechanisms and Remedies, in Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, edited by Asbjorn Eide, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas, 425–53. Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.

Schachter, O. (1983). Human Dignity as a Normative Concept. American Journal of International Law, 77 (4): 848–54.

Scheinin, M. (2011). Economic and Social Rights as Legal Rights, in Social, Economic and Cultural Rights, edited by Asbjorn Eide, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas, 29–54. Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.

Scott, C. (2009). Reaching Beyond (Without Abandoning) the Category of ‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 21(3): 633–60.

Scott, C. M., and Macklem, P. (2012). Constitutional Ropes of Sand or Justiciable Guarantees? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sen, A. (1981). Poverty and Famines. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sen, A. (1982). Rights and Agency. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 11: 3–39.

Sen, A. (1984). Rights and Capabilities, in Resources, Values and Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sen, A. (1985). Well-being, Agency, and Freedom. Journal of Philosophy, 85: 477–502.

Sen, A. (1999a). Commodities and Capabilities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sen, A. (1999b). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sen, A. (2004). Elements of a Theory of Human Rights. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 32: 315–56.

Shue, H. (1996). Basic Rights, 2nd edn. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Social Assistant Act (1992).

Steiner, H.J., Alston, P. and Goodman, R. (2018). Economic and Social Rights, in International Human Rights in Context, edited by Henry J. Steiner, Philip Alston, and Ryan Goodman, 263–374. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tasioulas, J. (2012). Human Rights, Universality and the Values of Personhood: Retracing Griffin’s Steps. European Journal of Philosophy, 10 (1): 79–100.

The Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (more commonly known as the “Protocol of San Salvador”) (1988).

The Constitution of India (1950).

The Constitution of Ireland (1937).

The Constitution of Papua New Guinea (1975).

The Constitution of Nigeria (1999).

The Constitution of Republic of South Africa (1996).

The European Convention on Human Rights (1950).

The European Social Charter (1961).

The Interim Constitution of Republic of South Africa (1994).

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Vance, C. (1977). Human Rights and Foreign Policy. Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, 7: 223–229.

Warbrick, C. (2016). Economic and Social Interests and the European Convention on Human Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Woods, J.M. (2013). Justiciable Social Rights as a Critique of the Liberal Paradigm. Texas International Law Journal, 38 (4): 763–74.

World Bank Development Report, (2020).

World Conference on Human Rights: Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (1993).

Downloads

Published

2024-09-15

Issue

Section

Sociology

How to Cite

OGUNBANJO, B. (2024). Analysis of the Challenges and Dilemmas in the Categorization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Al-Adab Journal, 150, 27-70. https://doi.org/10.31973/052x5y86

Publication Dates

Received

2024-04-17

Revised

2024-05-07

Accepted

2024-05-08

Published Online First

2024-09-15

Similar Articles

11-20 of 1099

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.