1.2 A new momenttim

"One purpose of this book is to respond to this shift: to look beyond the more abstract and ideological discussions of the nature of socio-economic rights in order to engage empirically with how such rights have manifested in international practice". -- INTRODUCTION.

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is a collection of seminal papers examining legal, conceptual and practical questions regarding the international legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights. The volume discusses what human rights obligations economic, social and cultural rights entail for states and non-state actors; the nature and scope of substantive economic, social and cultural rights such as education, health, work, water, enjoyment of the benefits of scientific progress, and cultural rights; as well as the justiciability of these rights at an international level and at the national level. The paramount importance of such questions is illustrated, among other things, by the catastrophic situation of economic, social and cultural rights as human rights in developing and developed states. The volume is divided into three main parts which focus on human rights obligations for states and non-state actors arising from treaties protecting economic, social and cultural rights; analysis of selected substantive rights; and finally the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights in various contexts such as within the United Nations, Europe, Inter-American, and African systems, as well as within the domestic system.

2. History and Norms

Now in its third edition, this book is the authoritative text on one of the world's most important human rights treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Covenant is of universal relevance. Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966 and in force from 1976, it commits the signatories and parties to respect the civil and political freedoms and rights of individuals. Monitored by the UN Human Rights Committee, the Covenant ratified by the majority of UN member states. The book meticulously extracts and analyzes the jurisprudence over nearly forty years of the UN Human Rights Committee, on each of the various ICCPR rights, including the right to life, the right to freedom from torture, the right of freedom of religion, the right of freedom of expression, and the right to privacy, as well as admissibility criteria under the First Optional Protocol. Key miscellaneous issues, such as reservations, derogations, and denunciations, are also thoroughly assessed. Comprehensively indexed and cross-referenced, this book offers elegant and straight-forward access to the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee and other UN human rights treaty bodies. Presented in a clear and illuminating manner, it will be of use to the judiciary, human rights practitioners, human rights activists, government institutions, academics, and students alike.

Drawing from a comprehensive review of legal instruments, practice, jurisprudence and literature, and using a multidisciplinary approach, this unique book brings forth the full spectrum of cultural rights, as individual and collective human rights, and offers a compelling vision for public policy.

Since the first edition (published in 2009), there have been several important treaty developments, including the entry into force of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) on individual communications, and significant developments in the case law on economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights. The second edition addresses these developments and explores ESC rights from foundational issues to substantive rights and systems of protection. It has been fully updated to include new material and up-to-date coverage of the case law of human rights bodies and national courts on ESC rights. In addition to the rights to health, education and work covered in the first edition, the second edition analyses new developments, such as the rights to adequate food, water and sanitation, adequate housing, social security and cultural rights. It also considers several contemporary issues including the extraterritorial human rights obligations of states in the area of economic, social and cultural rights; non-state actors; relationship of the ICESCR to other areas of international law; the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR; regional protection of ESC rights; more examples of the domestic protection of ESC rights; the protection of ESC rights of vulnerable groups; contemporary challenges to ESC rights, including poverty, corruption, armed conflicts and terrorism. It concludes by exploring the possible establishment of a World Court of Human Rights.

The legal, institutional and policy cultures of international human rights law and of international trade, financial and investment law have developed largely in isolation from one another. At the same time, as a matter of international law, both the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Economic Rights (ICESCR) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) are, in the first instance, treaty regimes. Treaty norms in the ICESCR have an equal legal status to those in the WTO. A large majority of states are signatories to both the core WTO treaties (the so-called Covered Agreements) and the ICESCR. Reconstructing globalization on the basis of a human rights consciousness, and in particular with a view to fully realizing the vision of the ICESCR is a daunting task, which would need to engage many policy disciplines and many institutions. A short to medium term strategy is needed to identify some fairly precise and specific interconnections between the legal concepts and doctrines in the treaty texts of both regimes. As international lawyers whose collective expertise extends across both regimes, the authors conceive the challenge as a legal question of the interaction of treaty norms. The authors focus on those aspects of economic, social and cultural rights that are most directly linked to human security, a fundamental value also acknowledged in various ways in the WTO Agreements and their interpretation. Accordingly, they examine aspects of the right to work, the right to health and the right to food and the impact of WTO rules and their interpretation..