1st Edition

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Edited By Manisuli Ssenyonjo Copyright 2011

    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.

    Contents: Introduction; Part I Human Rights Obligations: The nature and scope of states parties' obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Philip Alston and Gerard Quinn; The applicability of international human rights law to non-state actors: what relevance to economic, social and cultural rights?, Manisuli Ssenyonjo; Limitations to and derogations from economic, social and cultural rights, Amrei Müller; Countering, branding, dealing: using economic and social rights in and around the international trade regime, Robert Wai. Part II Selected Substantive Rights: Enhancing enforcement of economic, social and cultural rights using indicators: a focus on the right to education in the ICESCR, Sital Kalantry, Jocelyn E. Getgen and Steven Arrigg Koh; Health systems and the right to health: an assessment in 194 countries, Gunilla Backman, Paul Hunt, Rajat Khosla, et al; The personal application of the right to work in the age of migration, Haina Lu; A human right to access water? A critique of General Comment No. 15, Stephen Tully; Towards an understanding of the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its application, Audrey R. Chapman; What are cultural rights? Protecting groups with individual rights, Laura Reidel. Part III Justiciability of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights: should there be an international complaints mechanism to adjudicate the rights to food, water, housing, and health?, Michael J. Dennis and David P. Stewart; Chronicle of an announced birth: the coming into life of the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - the missing piece of the International Bill of Human Rights, Catarina de Albuquerque; The collective complaints system of the European social charter: interpretative methods of the European Committee of Social Rights, Holly Cullen; Justiciability of economic, social and cultura

    Biography

    Dr Manisuli Ssenyonjo is Senior Lecturer in Law at Brunel University. He has been a Visiting Professor at a number of universities around the world, particularly in Africa and the United Kingdom, and is involved with several international human rights organisations and law firms. He has varied research interests within the field of public international law and human rights law and he has written extensively and provided expert opinions in these areas. He is editor with Mashood Baderin of International Human Rights Law: 6 Decades After the UDHR and Beyond, Ashgate, 2010.

    'Any library featuring International Law would be incomplete without this handy collection of insightful essays by the key academics in the field.' American Society of International Law Newsletter