Economic, Social, And Cultural Rights Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This example Economic, Social, And Cultural Rights Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

Rights in moral philosophy and political theory are understood as justified claims. A right is an entitlement of a person or group to some good, service, or liberty. Rights create correlative obligations or duties, usually on the part of the state, to secure or to not interfere with the enjoyment of that entitlement.

Human rights are a special class of rights—the rights one has by virtue of being a human being. Human rights are predicated on the recognition of the intrinsic value and worth of all human beings. As such, human rights are considered to be universal, vested equally in all persons regardless of their gender, race, nationality, economic status, or social position. Cumulatively, human rights represent the minimum conditions for a decent society.

Economic, social, and cultural rights encompass the economic, social, and cultural benefits, services, and protections that have received widespread acceptance as legal entitlements. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948, enumerates two categories of human rights: (1) the civil and political rights with which most Americans are familiar and (2) economic, social, and cultural rights. Subsequent international and regional human rights instruments based on the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are legally binding on countries that ratify them. The countries thus become states parties bound by their provisions.

Basic Human Rights

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is the major international human rights instrument setting forth inter nationally recognized economic, social, and cultural rights. Relevant rights incorporated in the covenant include the following:

the right of all peoples to self-determination through freely pursuing their economic, social, and cultural development (article 1.1) and controlling their natural wealth and resources (article 1.2);
the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favorable conditions of work (article 7), specifically fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value; safe and healthy working conditions; and equal opportunity for promotion;
the right of everyone to form trade unions and the right of each person to join the trade union of his or her choice (article 8), which includes the right of trade unions to function freely and to strike;
the recognition that the widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family (article 10), encompassing special protection to mothers before and after childbirth, including paid leave or leave with adequate social security benefits and measures to protect children and young persons from economic and social exploitation;
the right to an adequate standard of living (article 11), including adequate food, clothing, and housing and the improvement of living conditions;
the right of everyone to be free from hunger (article 11.2), which directs states to improve methods of production, conservation, and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, reforming agrarian systems, and ensuring an equitable distribution of world food supplies in relationship to need;
the right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health (article 12), with a mandate that states take measures to provide for the reduction of infant mortality; the prevention, treatment, and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational, and other diseases; and the creation of conditions that would ensure medical services and medical attention to all in the event of sickness;
the right to education (article 13), which states that primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all and that secondary education in its different forms shall be made generally available and accessible—article 13 also requires states parties to respect the liberty of parents and legal guardians to choose for their children schools other than those established by the public authorities—and
three types of cultural and scientific rights (grouped together in article 15): the right to take part in cultural life; the recognition of the moral and material rights of authors, scientists, and artists; and the right to the benefits of scientific progress and its applications.

Acknowledging that it may not be possible for all states parties to realize immediately the full provisions of all of these rights, the standard the covenant uses is “progressive realization.” Article 2.1 of the covenant directs states parties to take steps, individually and through international assistance and cooperation, to the maximum of their available resources, with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights recognized in the present covenant by all appropriate means. Nevertheless, progressive realization over a period of time does not eliminate states parties’ obligations to fulfill these rights. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, an expert body that reviews the performance of states parties, interprets the provisions of the covenant to require states parties to have a specific and continuing obligation to move expeditiously and effectively toward full realization of all the rights enumerated in the covenant. The committee also interprets the covenant to impose various obligations that have immediate effect, including core obligations related to each specific right.

Protecting Human Rights

The following is a list of the major international and regional human rights instruments that enumerate economic, social, and cultural rights, with the years they came into force:

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976);
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969);
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1981);
Convention on the Right of the Child (1990);
American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man (1948);
European Social Charter (Revised; 1965); and
African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1986).

The constitutions of many countries also have provisions modeled on the economic, social, and cultural rights enumerated in the international and regional instruments. Some are in the form of directive principles of state policy that set forth goals rather than enforceable rights. Others, particularly more recently drafted constitutions such as the 1996 South African constitution, have bills of rights that recognize a broad array of socioeconomic rights.

Virtually all countries have ratified at least one international and/or regional human rights instrument that enumerates some economic, social, and cultural rights, and many also have constitutional or legal provisions stipulating rights protections and entitlements. However, in most states these rights are only partially implemented for a variety of reasons: insufficient resources, lack of political will, global economic pressures and commitments, and weak political institutions. Nevertheless, the existence of these rights commitments provides a normative framework for enlightened political actors and a basis for political mobilization and legal action. It is sometimes observed that human rights are claimed through mobilization from the bottom and not granted from the top, and that certainly is the case with regard to economic, social, and cultural rights.

Bibliography:

Chapman, Audrey R., and Sage Russell, eds. Core Obligations: Building a Framework for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Antwerp, Belgium: Intersentia, 2007.
Craven, Matthew. The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights: A Perspective on Its Development. Oxford, UK: Clarendon, 1995.
Eide, Asbjorn, Catarina Kraus, and Allan Rosas, eds. Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Textbook. The Hague, the Netherlands: Kluwer Law International, 2001.
Hertel, Shareen, and Lanse Minkler, eds. Economic Rights: Conceptual, Measurement, and Policy Issues. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Hunt, Paul. Reclaiming Social Rights: International and Comparative Perspectives. Brookfield,Vt.: Aldershot, 1996.
Merali, Isfahan, and Valerie Oosterveld, eds. Giving Meaning to Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.