Abstract
Socio-economic inequality within many countries is rising worldwide, and it seems that prevailing human rights paradigms have failed to resolve the most pressing human rights issues. This failure can be observed in many areas, not least the COVID-19 pandemic. The limits of government regimes were made visible by their neglect of core human rights obligations and, in some cases, the failure to establish and maintain the necessary public institutions for effective collective responses.
However, this failure of dominant human rights paradigms does not equate to a failure of human rights in general. This is adequately demonstrated in the reviewed edited volume, which serves as a reference work offering a broad overview of research in the field of economic, social, and cultural rights (hereafter ESCR). Despite its breadth, the book is well-structured, clearly delineated, and appropriately detailed. The book gives the greater picture of the state-of-the-art in this field based on a clear and not-too-extensive analysis of the law. At the same time, each chapter of the edited volume informs the reader about the current debates and critically raises the most challenging issues that still need to be addressed. The extent of the sources used varies across chapters. References to literature tend to be non-exhaustive, whereas the analysis of case law is more expansive in some chapters (for example, in the chapter regarding the Inter-American System or the chapter on the right to food).
The legal framework for ESCR is not examined in a uniform way. The authors systemise the strategies and approaches pursued so far, at different levels (international and regional) and in view of each specific ESCR (in particular, the right to social security, the right to education, the right to food, the right to health, the right to adequate housing, the human rights to water and sanitation, the right to work, and rights at work). Τhe structure of the book confirms this systemisation, with the first part including framing chapters that cover relevant ESCR structures and mechanisms in international and regional spheres, while the second part focuses on specific rights with references to scholarship and jurisprudence from different systems. The last part of the book examines cross-cutting issues that concentrate primarily on the domestic context.
Apart from contextualising the issues raised in each chapter, some chapters present thought-provoking future perspectives. For instance, the chapter on the right to food argues that this right is a fundamental component of the right to a dignified life and a crucial precondition for the realisation of a host of other civil and political rights (hereafter CPR) and ESCR. However, there are numerous factors limiting the development of measures for its effective implementation, such as socio-economic inequalities and climate change. It is thoroughly analysed how the human right to food is linked with the concept of “food sovereignty” and interdependent with the rights to land, work, and social security. The right to food is further examined in the context of feminist critiques of food systems, food sovereignty movements, the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous people and peasants, and the creation of corporate accountability frameworks.
Another example is the approach taken in the chapter on the interdependence of human rights, where the author brings to our attention the existence of a neglected and unchartered territory between ESCR and CPR, which may marginalise the claimants in a two-way conversation between courts and legislators. Evidence from international and regional experiences shows that ESCR advocacy and adjudication can be transformed by engaging civil and political claims. The focus should be on the claimant’s circumstances and entitlements reclaiming equality through interdependence of human rights. Similarly, in most of the chapters, states’ obligations regarding the realisation and enforcement of ESCR are explored and analysed in both horizonal and vertical approaches.
Four chapters have particular significance for future debates. The first two – namely, the chapter on the progressive realisation of ESCR using maximum available resources and the chapter on economic policy and human rights – investigate the relationship between economic policies and human rights from two different perspectives. However, both chapters are based on the same concerns, i.e., the unjust distribution of resources and economic inequalities, which have profound impacts on the realisation of ESCR. Another highly relevant chapter explores how climate change litigation has been linked to ESCR so far and explains the tensions between ESCR and climate policy. The chapter refers to cases using ESCR explicitly as an argument (legal basis) by parties or courts in the context of climate change litigation, as well as cases that indirectly argued for human rights violations based on the climate change impact (for example, in cases of climate-related (cross-border) displacement). Interestingly, case law from Australia - a country with the most climate change litigation - provides insightful examples on how access to environmental justice is intertwined with ESCR, demonstrating the practice of the reversed impact assessment in proposed mining, housing, or other planning developments. The authors of the chapter identify the existing barriers to the adjudication of climate change responsibilities and support the integration of ESCR concerns into the design and implementation of climate mitigation and adaptation policies, which could also be a model of safeguarding social rights. Finally, the chapter on the interdependence of human rights examines the evolution of the idea of the interdependence of ESCR and CPR and its development in the jurisprudence calling for a more inclusive and transformational paradigm of human rights at large.
As the ESCR is an emerging field of knowledge and practice, the authors of the book argue that law and practice are at an “experimental” stage. However, the work that has already been undertaken to develop models of governance based on ESCR must be revived. Indeed, the book provides a resource for pursuing a more inclusive and effective human rights practice. The interdependence of rights should be effectively recognised by international and national actors and the relationship between human rights in books and human rights in practice should be reflected upon in a critical manner. It is argued that this type of governance is necessary for effectively dealing with the challenges of the new decade and for realising a more equal, sustainable, and secure world.
In general, the book addresses the international community as well as all levels of governance. It can complement the teaching of ESCR, offering a great resource and comprehensive overview of the existing legal framework of rights protection. Thus, the book can give new impulses to academic discourse regarding the contemporary challenges emerging from the strategies and approaches to ESCR protection globally, regionally, and domestically.
