A/HRC/32/31
acceptance of the justiciability of economic and social rights contrasts with the resistance of
many of the relevant courts to acting on these rights; many of the States that enjoy the
world’s highest living standards have specifically rejected proposals to recognize economic
and social rights in legislative or constitutional form; most national-level institutional
mechanisms for promoting human rights neglect economic and social rights; and national
economic and social rights accountability mechanisms are generally much rarer than
mainstream accounts would suggest.
The extent to which economic and social rights remain unacknowledged as human
rights is the frequency with which debates about economic and social rights slide
imperceptibly and almost naturally into broad discussions of development. But, in fact,
development initiatives might not be rights-promoting, or even rights-protecting. In the
report, the Special Rapporteur spells out why it matters that economic and social rights be
treated as human rights and examines the ways in which this can be done by outlining the
recognition, institutionalization and accountability (RIA) framework that focuses primary
attention on ensuring recognition of the rights, institutional support for their promotion and
accountability mechanisms for their implementation.
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