Economic Social and Cultural Rights

Kenya’s Constitution has been hailed far and wide by many as one of the most transformative Constitutions in Africa and across the globe. It brought with it sweeping changes in so far as rights and fundamental freedoms in the Bill of Rights are concerned. For the first time in post-independence Kenya, economic and social rights have been introduced into Kenya’s Bill of Rights under Chapter Four of the Constitution. Amongst these rights is the right of every person to the highest attainable standard of health which includes the right to healthcare services and the right to reproductive healthcare. This right also includes the right of every person to emergency medical treatment. It is this last limb of this right that is forming the subject matter of this paper.  Further, the Constitution guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination, and the full enjoyment of all rights and fundamental freedoms.  The right to equality encompasses within itself the right of a poor patient to quality healthcare regardless of their ability to pay. Most importantly also, the scope of the Bill of Rights has also been widened as the Constitution now stipulates that most of the rights provided for in the Bill of Rights bind private individuals and corporations, as well as the state.  Despite these constitutional guarantees though, the Kenyan media has been replete with reports of patients dying because they have been denied emergency medical treatment on account of inability to pay hospital charges.  The question then becomes the extent to which this constitutionally guaranteed right is available for beneficiaries of rights under the Constitution.

O estudo parte da premissa de que não se pode assegurar a satisfação dos direitos fundamentais sociais apenas à parcela da população que logra acesso ao Poder Judiciário, deixando à deriva todos os titulares das mesmas pretensões jurídico-subjetivas que não conseguem obter a proteção dos seus direitos pela via judicial. É preciso, paralelamente à busca de instrumentos judiciais de tutela dos direitos sociais, identificar no ordenamento jurídico mecanismos administrativos que sejam capazes de proporcionar uma tutela não apenas eficaz de tais direitos, mas também igualitária. Impõe-se, portanto, encontrar ferramentas no Direito Administrativo que vinculem a Administração Pública às decisões estatais prévias – sejam elas administrativas ou judiciais – que concederam a determinados cidadãos a tutela de seus direitos sociais, estendendo a concessão das mesmas prestações a todos os demais titulares do mesmo direito que venham a reivindicá-lo perante os Poderes Públicos. É este o objeto do presente artigo: sustentar a vinculação da Administração aos precedentes administrativos e judiciais em matéria de direitos sociais, como meio de promover a sua tutela em consonância com o princípio constitucional da igualdade.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo examinar, sob uma perspectiva crítica, a utilização da noção de mínimo existencial como um critério determinante para delimitar a exigibilidade judicial dos direitos fundamentais econômicos e sociais. Para tanto, busca-se precisar o significado jurídico conferido ao conceito, perpassando pela análise de suas origens, natureza e fundamentos jurídicos, estrutura normativa, relação com os direitos fundamentais econômicos e sociais, para demonstrar que a doutrina e a jurisprudência brasileiras têm se valido do mínimo existencial de maneiras muito distintas e com propósitos diferenciados. Objetiva-se, assim, mapear as variadas posições adotadas a respeito dos diversos aspectos da noção de mínimo existencial, com o escopo de evitar confusões acerca do tema. Verifica-se, na pesquisa, que há três focos principais de divergências em relação à concepção de mínimo existencial, nem sempre explícitos nas obras sobre o assunto e nas decisões judiciais que o invocam: (a) quanto ao seu conteúdo: conteúdo determinável no caso concreto vs. existência de um rol constitucional preferencial; (b) quanto à sua estrutura normativa e forma de aplicação: direito prima facie (princípio) vs. direito definitivo (regra); (c) quanto à sua utilidade como critério de justiciabilidade dos direitos sociais: mínimo existencial como piso mínimo vs. mínimo existencial como teto máximo. Ao longo do estudo, são apresentados alguns caminhos e posicionamentos voltados a um emprego funcional do conceito, demonstrando a impossibilidade de utilizá-lo como critério definitivo para delinear a exigibilidade judicial dos direitos fundamentais sociais.

O artigo visa a analisar se os direitos fundamentais econômicos, sociais e culturais e ambientais ostentam titularidade individual ou transindividual, e, por consequência, se a sua tutela deve ser realizada de forma isolada ou coletiva. No estudo, com base (i) na distinção entre “direito fundamental como um todo” e “pretensões jurídicas jusfundamentais”, (ii) na multifuncionalidade dos direitos fundamentais, e (iii) na dupla dimensão (subjetiva e objetiva) desses direitos, defende-se que todos os direitos fundamentais apresentam uma dupla titularidade. Sustenta-se que, em cada direito fundamental, algumas das pretensões dele decorrentes revelam-se como posições subjetivas exigíveis individualmente, ao passo que outras encontram-se associadas à dimensão objetiva do direito, possuindo titularidade transindividual. Diante disso, todo direito fundamental, quando considerado em sua integralidade, exibirá tanto uma faceta individual quanto uma feição transindividual, a depender da pretensão em análise. O trabalho tece uma crítica ao intento de se enquadrar de forma genérica e exclusiva os direitos fundamentais em alguma das categorias previstas da legislação processual civil brasileira (individual, coletivo, difuso ou individual homogêneo), haja vista que um mesmo direito enfeixa pretensões jurídicas distintas.

Analisando as tendências contemporâneas do Direito Público brasileiro em termos de direitos fundamentais econômicos e sociais, o presente artigo busca refutar a concepção segundo a qual o papel do Estado resume-se a assegurar somente condições mínimas de existência digna ao cidadão, necessárias ao exercício das liberdades, bem como a ideia de que o Poder Judiciário, mediante a concessão de prestações individuais, é a via mais adequada para a efetivação desses direitos. A partir de uma leitura da Constituição de 1988, propõe-se que a promoção do desenvolvimento, um dos objetivos fundamentais da República, reclama a postura interventiva de uma Administração Pública inclusiva, por meio de ações universalizadas, que não se restrinjam à garantia do mínimo existencial. Defende-se que ao Estado não incumbe uma função subsidiária nessa seara, limitada a proporcionar uma igualdade de oportunidades entre os indivíduos como ponto de partida; pelo contrário, a ele compete a implementação de políticas públicas de modo planejado, com vistas à redução das desigualdades entre as posições sociais existentes na realidade brasileira.

It may appear to be paradoxical to celebrate work as a human right in an economic system in which for many work is associated with activities that are rather repetitive or stressful, sometimes meaningless, and seldom freely chosen. After presenting the content and historical origins of the human right to work, as defined in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, this article argues that the right to work cannot be universally fulfilled in the contemporary state-centred global economy. Moving beyond economic discussions placing too much attention on how to provide enough but sometimes unfulfilling work, the article examines the human potential to reduce the need to work. It outlines the theoretical and definitional foundations of the 'human economy', where human potential and creativity are rewarded in order to make the transition from the right to work to freedom from work. The human economy is a potentialist approach in which the right to be free to choose work plays an increasing role.

This essay recognizes human rights as something
more profound than legal rights. In the context of the
rise of global capitalism, being faithful to human
rights’ intrinsic counter-hegemonic nature requires
contemplating a picture larger than rights litigation.
This involves reassessing the efficacy of human rights
instruments in order to address the structural causes
impairing human rights.

El estudio analiza el problema de la inactividad de la Administración Pública en emitir, en un plazo razonable, decisión expresa en los procedimientos administrativos iniciados por provocación del ciudadano y cuyo objeto es la solicitud de tutela de derechos sociales. Se propone distinguir las nociones de "plazo razonable" y "plazo legal", admitiendo que en determinadas situaciones de urgencia la Administración tendrá el deber constitucional de decidir el caso antes del plazo establecido por la ley. Se argumenta, además, que en los procedimientos administrativos relacionados con la tutela de los derechos sociales, el silencio de la Administración Pública que se mantenga después del plazo legal para resolver debe interpretarse de manera positiva, como si se hubiera concedido la petición del ciudadano.

Abstract
This dissertation examines the state of the human right to food and the post-1991 [Ethiopian] state’s compliance with its human right to food obligations as envisaged by the relevant international human rights instruments, i.e. the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The study was undertaken in varying socio-economic contexts of Ethiopia, among the communities living in the rural Simada Woreda in the Amhara National Regional State and urban Gulele Sub-city of the Addis Ababa City. Deriving from the right to existence, the human right to food guarantees every human being the entitlement to be free from hunger and to have unrestricted access to food that is adequate in both quantity and quality that in turn would enable the right holder to live a healthy and active life. In this respect, in its very essence, the human right to food entitles right holders to have access to the means to feed themselves in dignity. Despite the affirmation of the right by the UDHR and the ICESCR since the second quarter of the 20th century, the right to food remains to be one of the most violated human rights around the world. As per the recent estimates of the FAO (2017), about 1 billion people around the world and about 40 million people in Ethiopia have been victims of hunger and undernutrition. The central aim of this study is, therefore, to investigate the state of the realization of the human right to food in varying socioeconomic contexts of Ethiopia, in the rural Simada woreda of the Amhara National Regional State and Gulele Sub-city of Addis Ababa City Administration. For this purpose, the study has adopted a qualitative multidisciplinary case study approach. Accordingly, information was gathered through document analysis, interviews, and focus group discussion. The state of the realization of the human right to food has been analyzed based on the human right to food constituting elements; availability, accessibility, and adequacy and correspondingly, the compliance of the state to the right to food obligations has been investigated on the basis of state obligation normative standards; recognition, respect, protection and fulfilment of the right, respectively. The finding of the study reveals that the human right to food is currently a mass violated right in the case study areas. The existing national legislation and policies of the state are not adequately addressing the demands of the realization of the human right to food. Often, as discussed in chapter four and following chapters, the national legislation and policies of the state and their implementation rather than providing the required respect and protection, they themselves contravene with the right. Though the Constitution of Ethiopia has paid tribute to the ICESCR by giving it access to the local legal system (Article 9(4) and Article 13(2)) and the human right to food can also be presumed as a guaranteed right within the purview of right to life, Article 15, an overt and express provision protecting the human right to food is lacking. At the level of practice, apart from foreign-funded food aid and the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) of the government which is currently under implementation only in selected rural Woredas, there has been no alternative or available social security scheme to the most and the chronically food-insecure people in Ethiopia. Particularly, to the dismay of the urban poor, PSNP and other safety net program are not yet functionally available. On top of this, the government is not opting to put the right to food among its policy priority list, in both rural and urban contexts. This thesis, therefore, argues, there is a compelling need to recognize the human right to food expressly and unequivocally under the human rights chapter of the FDRE constitution. For such a recognition would be a major milestone, though not a panacea, to address the problem. It would facilitate the realization of the right to food, and help the state and its agencies to comply with their constitutional obligations to the right and to hold them accountable accordingly. Apart from this, a human right to food legal framework would support the effort to better realize the right by providing the details on the right and its means of enforcement. Moreover, it is argued here that there is a need for a paradigmatic shift in policy approach from ‘food security’ to ‘food sovereignty’. For food security is a technical term, not a legal one, and does not put a duty on the state for the realization of the same. On the other hand, food sovereignty, both as a policy alternative and a grass-root social movement, underscores food as a fundamental human right. Therefore, as discussed in chapter seven, it would be instrumental to the realization of the right. Finally, yet importantly, this study has suggested that through more democratic governance that ensures participation, accountability, non-discrimination, transparency, human dignity, empowerment, and rule of law the human right to food can be better realized.
Key Terms: Freedom, Hunger, Malnutrition, Poverty, Right to Food, State Obligation

This submission is prepared by the Coalition for Personal Autonomy to help the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to compose "list of issues prior to reporting" (LOIPR), the response to which will constitute Ukraine’s report under article 16 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The submission covers near hundred problems with implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with special attention to the problems of: human rights crisis and oppression of personal autonomy in Ukraine; lack of legal safeguards to protect rights guaranteed by the Covenant; lack of legal information and public dialogue on human rights issues; militarization of Ukrainian economy, society, culture, repressions against pacifists and conscientious objectors; unfair distribution of public goods; problems with the registration of religious organizations and discrimination of small religious groups; lack of access to higher education for prisoners and unemployment after serving a sentence; arbitrary deprivation of access to the profession of lawyer and threats of the monopoly of the Bar; poverty among working people; decline of patient autonomy in the mental health system; deprivation of language autonomy; governmental attacks on academic freedom, problems of financing and monopolistic assessment of the scientific research. Submission is published in the UN OHCHR database (country section Ukraine, document Info from Civil Society Organizations: Coalition for Personal Autonomy) at URL https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=1264&Lang=en

RESUMO
A recente adoção dos Protocolos Facultativos ao Pacto de Direitos Econômicos, Sociais e Culturais (PIDESC) e à Convenção sobre os Direitos da Criança (CDC), conferindo a indivíduos a possibilidade de reclamar da violação de seus direitos humanos para órgãos de tratado da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU), completa o sistema de comunicações individuais dos principais tratados universais de proteção de direitos humanos, conhecidos como core human rights treaties. O presente artigo fornece uma visão geral sobre a evolução, aspectos procedimentais e eficácia dos mecanismos de petição individual existentes para esses tratados, dando ênfase ao Protocolo Facultativo ao PIDESC que entrou em vigor em 5 de maio de 2013.
PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Tratados internacionais, Direitos humanos, Reclamação individual, Mecanismos de petição individual, Vítimas, Órgãos de tratado

Abstract: The recent adoption of Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) establishing the ability of individuals to complain to United Nations (UN) treaty bodies about the violation of their human rights fully completes the individual communications procedures framework existing under the so-called core international human rights treaties. This paper gives a general overview of the development, procedural aspects and effectiveness of the individual complaints mechanisms existing under these treaties, with special enphasis on the Optional Protocol to CESCR that came into force on May 5, 2013.
KEYWORDS: International treaties, Human rights, Individual complaints procedures, Individual communications, Victims, Treaty bodies

In recent years, several Asian countries have begun moving away from patchwork welfare programs toward providing more comprehensive social protection. This is a significant shift in a region where social welfare has not been politically popular, and the family has traditionally absorbed the burden of supporting the young, the old, and the ailing. Two of these states-India and Indonesia-have put new social protection initiatives into law rather than simply formulating executive policy. In this article, I examine recent social protection laws in both countries. I look in particular at India's National Food Security Law, passed in 2013, and Indonesia's laws on the National Social Security System, passed in 2004 and 2011. These laws deserve attention because they aim not just to extend benefits, but also to advance economic and social rights, which are recognized in both India and Indonesia at the constitutional level. Thus, these recent social protection laws potentially deepen what Brinks and Gauri describe as the "legalization" of welfare policy, whereby legal rights assume importance in policy, and legal professionals, judges in particular, become significant in implementing them. As such, these laws are likely to, and arguably should, impose quite hard-edged obligations on the government and enable individuals to hold the government to its obligations. At the same time, recent social protection laws have the potential to allay concerns that legal enforcement of economic social rights distorts policy and dilutes the separation of powers. Through my analysis, I show that social protection laws in both India and Indonesia have primarily expanded the policies

Using Canada as a case study, this chapter suggests a reconceptualization of the role of the judiciary in interpreting human rights. The author suggests that traditional paradigms of rights as originating outside of courts, by way of constitutional agreements or international human rights treaties, must be nuanced by a better understanding of human rights practice -- a process through which rights are perpetually re-constituted through the historical act of claiming and re-interpreting rights. Social rights claims are often understood as claims to goods or entitlements but they should equally be understood as claims to meanings that speak to and address the experience of previously excluded claimants and evolving socio-historical struggles. Judiciaries must be independent of the political branches of government but the courts’ role should not be construed as independent of historical struggles or of the evolving social construction of the meaning of rights; if it were, judicial inte...

President Lula’s Brazilian government, approaching the end of its second term, has just made a decision that is both transcendental and historical due to its paramount effectiveness in the reduction of poverty in a very meaningful manner and in the span of little more than a decade. Beginning in 2010 the Brazilian State intends to increase the real minimum wage annually, until 2023, following the simple rule of increasing nominal wages by applying the rate of inflation plus the GPD growth recorded two years earlier. Without a doubt, such policy will gradually transform Brazilian wages into living wages. In this way, Brazil commits to closing the wage gap prevailing between current Brazilian labour endowments, still undignified, and the living wage ethos prevailing in developed economies, within the current market context. This commitment makes the Brazilian State achieve a great deal of congruence with the most primeval raison d'etre of any State that takes pride in being a demo...

This Article reports and comments on the results of an assessment of the legal protection of the right to academic freedom (an examination of its factual protection to be undertaken at a future point) in EU member states, having examined these countries’ constitutions, laws on higher education, and other relevant legislation. The assessment relied on a standard scorecard, developed by utilizing indicators of protection of academic freedom, notably as reflected in UNESCO’s Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher- Education Teaching Personnel, a document of 1997 that is not legally, but “politically” binding, and which concretizes international human rights requirements in respect of academic freedom—a right under international human rights law. The results for the various countries have been quantified, and the countries have been ranked in accordance with “their performance.” Overall, the state of the legal protection of the right to academic freedom in Europe appears to be o...

This is a slight variation on the perspectiv e of Michael Ignatieff, who defines m inimalism as an outlook capable of accommodating the fact that "people from different cultures may continue to disagree about what is good, but nevertheless agree about what is insufferably, unarguably wrong." Michael Ignatieff, Human Rights as Ideology , in HUMAN RIGHTS AS POLITICS AND IDOLATRY 53, 56 (Amy Gutmann ed., 2001). Ignatieff suggests that this entails targeting "unm erited suffering and gross physical cruelty," from which he excludes econom ic and social rights depriva tions altogether.