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Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 7
- Paragraph text
- There is a strong risk that when confronted with the challenge of addressing economic insecurity the human rights system will proceed in zombie mode. It will keep marching straight ahead on the path mapped out long ago, even as the lifeblood drains out of the enterprise. Its supervisory and monitoring organs will address themselves ever more insistently to State actors that have made themselves marginal, and they will continue to demand respect for standards that have long since been overtaken by the grim realities of global supply chains. For the most part, the human rights machinery is cumbersome, lacking in agility, and poorly placed to develop new thinking in such contexts. But it will need to do so if it is to remain relevant.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 9
- Paragraph text
- In its comprehensive and ideal form, a basic income is explicitly designed to challenge most of the key assumptions underpinning existing social security systems. Rather than a system where there are partial payments, basic income guarantees a floor; instead of being episodic, payments are regular; rather than being needs-based, they are paid as a flat rate to all; they come in cash, rather than as messy in-kind support; they accrue to every individual, rather than only to needy households; rather than requiring that various conditions be met, they are unconditional; rather than excluding the well off, they are universal; and instead of being based on lifetime contributions, they are funded primarily from taxation. And simplicity of design promises minimal bureaucracy and low administrative costs.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 4
- Paragraph text
- The neoliberal policies encapsulated in the 1980s-era Washington Consensus can be seen, especially in retrospect, to have greatly exacerbated economic insecurity, whether or not that was the intent. The State was assumed to be intrinsically inefficient and corruption-prone, and this led to constant pressure to shrink all those parts of it that provided social and basic economic services to the populace, while vindicating and reinforcing the State in its role as the regulator facilitating and legitimizing the privatization of the economy. Social security and social protection was transformed, including through the explicit policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, into a minimalist notion of “social safety nets” designed to avoid the very worst outcomes and make the State look beneficent while empowering officials dedicated to devising ever more efficient “targeting” mechanisms and to rooting out overinclusion while playing down underinclusion. The objectives of promoting tax reform and prudent fiscal policies turned into a race to the bottom to set the lowest individual and corporate tax rates, attracting businesses through expensive exemptions, turning a blind eye to illegal or unconscionably evasive tax practices, and eliminating estate taxes and other measures that would bring about even minimal redistribution. Privatization was promoted even in relation to what were once seen as basic State functions, such as prisons, education and security. In some States, even the justice system has been partly privatized, whether through onerous court fees for the poor or the channelling of consumer and other complaints into private arbitration.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 3
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- The fundamental values of the international human rights system are under attack in new and diverse ways in 2017. While competing explanations have been proffered, one that is included in most lists is that there is a rapidly growing sense of economic insecurity afflicting large segments of many societies. There is an increasing feeling of being exposed, vulnerable, overwhelmed and helpless, and of being systematically marginalized, both economically and socially. This situation, which previously seemed to be a fate reserved only for those living in low-income countries or in extreme poverty in high- and middle-income countries, now afflicts not just the unemployed and the underemployed, but also the precariously employed and those likely to be rendered unemployed in the foreseeable future as a result of various developments. Many of these individuals previously enjoyed a modicum of security and respect and felt that they had a stake in the overall system of government. As the new insecurity has ballooned and affected ever-greater numbers, many mainstream political parties have either remained oblivious, or have offered solutions that have only exacerbated the problems, further undermining faith in electoral democracy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
Extreme poverty and human rights on universal basic income 2017, para. 15
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- A full basic income is considered a universal entitlement that is automatically paid ex ante to all in a society, regardless of income, wealth, age and gender. It does not require means testing and is not restricted to specific categories of recipients. This idea is troubling to many, who question why the “haves” should receive as much as the “have nots”. Common responses are that any form of means testing to determine eligibility requires a large and inefficient bureaucracy to evaluate claims, creates a burden on disadvantaged people to prove their financial need, stigmatizes the target group, and undermines the freedom to not work — as compared to means-tested welfare that is reduced as people work and earn more. One option for retaining universality but responding to this unfairness critique is a progressive taxation system that effectively takes back much of the basic income payment from high earners. Some challenge the viability of that approach in a world in which elite tax avoidance and evasion schemes are rife.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2017
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- In the view of the Special Rapporteur, and of most scholars, the legal arguments supporting the claim of non-receivability are wholly unconvincing in legal terms. First, the claims appear to have all of the characteristics of a private law tort claim. The victims accuse the United Nations of negligence for failure to adequately screen its peacekeeping forces for cholera, failure to provide for adequate sanitation facilities and waste management at Mirebalais camp, failure to undertake adequate water quality testing and a failure to take immediate corrective action after cholera was introduced. These are classic third-party claims for damages for personal injury, illness and death, and they arise directly from action or inaction by, or attributable to, MINUSTAH. This would include a failure to exercise non-negligent supervision of the actions of private contractors. The United Nations has frequently processed claims involving alleged negligence, especially, for example, in relation to traffic accidents.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 69
- Paragraph text
- The rule of law. The Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General have given strong voice to the resolutions of the General Assembly in which the Assembly underscored the central importance of respecting the rule of law. Yet, the approach of the United Nations in this case undermines the rule of law and diminishes the Organization's credibility as an advocate for its respect. By failing to take even minimal steps to hold itself accountable and compensate those affected, or even to explain the reasons for its refusal to do so, the United Nations replicates the very behaviour it seeks to modify elsewhere. The rule of law requires that the United Nations abide by its treaty obligations, including those under the status-of-forces agreement, as well as fundamental human rights such as providing an effective remedy to those harmed by the Organization. It also requires that the Organization act consistently and respond in comparable fashion to all legitimate private law claims made against it. The United Nations should be leading by setting a good example.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Because of the relative inactivity of these other actors, studies of economic and social rights accountability have focused overwhelmingly on the courts and on the extent to which the increasing constitutional recognition noted above has enabled them to play an active role in upholding economic and social rights. It is open to question whether this emphasis accurately reflects the main trends in economic and social rights accountability or whether it is due more to the lawyers' preference for studying courts. It might also be linked to the determination of economic and social rights proponents in the era of post-Cold War constitutional revitalization to respond to the often heard, but highly reductionist, proposition that "if one is to talk meaningfully of rights, one has to discuss what can be enforced through the judicial process". In response, economic and social rights proponents have sought legitimacy by seeking to demonstrate that economic and social rights resemble civil and political rights, at least in this key respect.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 25
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- In the light of what appears to be the relatively common State practice of not giving explicit legislative recognition to individual economic and social rights, the most important question is whether legislation, or an equivalent form of legal instrument, can be dispensed with altogether by a State that claims to be fulfilling its obligations through other means. In practice, the argument will usually be that legislation has been adopted in relation to the issue or sector in question, and it is unnecessary for any reference to be made in that legislation to the relevant human right. In other words, to take the example of the right to food, the argument would be that it is sufficient that there is legislation in place that addresses food safety or food security, even though it reflects no explicit rights dimension. Or, in the case of the right to education, laws dealing with the establishment of educational institutions are considered sufficient, even if there is no acknowledgement that education is a human right.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Food & Nutrition
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The immunity of the United Nations from suit in national courts is seen by most observers as an indispensable means of protecting it from political attacks and avoiding putting it at the mercy of unpredictable and perhaps ill-intentioned or hostile national courts. But absolute immunity without the provision of alternative remedies is equally unsustainable, which is why the 1946 Convention provides for both immunity and remedies. In 2005, a review of peacekeeping recommended the waiver of immunity in relation to criminal acts "where continued immunity would impede the course of justice and where immunity can be waived without prejudice to the interests of the United Nations" (A/59/710, para. 86). A similar principle should apply in the present context.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- Remedies. The provision of remedies for wrongdoing is an essential dimension of the law relating to immunity, of human rights law, of the rule of law and of the principle of accountability. The High Commissioner for Human Rights regularly and rightly admonishes States that refuse to provide a remedy to those whose human rights have been violated, yet in the Haiti case the United Nations has refused even to contemplate a range of remedies which could reasonably and feasibly be provided. Similarly, in the transitional justice context, the United Nations consistently calls upon States to acknowledge wrongdoing, to ensure meaningful processes for the vindication of claims and to provide victims with redress. Yet in the Haiti case the victims are told that a handful of broadly focused development projects should provide sufficient redress. Even in the context of armed conflicts, various United Nations bodies have urged States to provide forms of compensation, whether ex gratia or otherwise, to the killed or injured even though the legal obligation to provide such compensation is not uncontested.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 21
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- However, in the 50 years since the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights were adopted, extensive experience has been gained at both the international and national level, which enables us to identify the key ingredients in successful approaches to the recognition and implementation of human rights obligations. Three are of particular salience in relation to economic and social rights: (a) the need to accord legal recognition to the rights; (b) the need for appropriate institutional arrangements to promote and facilitate realization of the rights; and (c) the need for measures that promote governmental accountability. This can be termed the recognition, institutionalization and accountability framework, or the RIA framework, and its implications for economic and social rights are considered below.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 10
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- During the Cold War years, deep ideological divisions ensured that economic and social rights were given very limited attention. It was not until 1987 that the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was established by the Economic and Social Council, a development that certainly helped to trigger considerable progress. Partly as a result, 171 States proclaimed at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993 that: All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 12
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- Some will contest this assessment, while others will suggest that the difference in attention and in the practical legal recognition accorded to the two sets of rights - civil and political rights on one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights on the other - does not really matter. In fact, it matters a great deal, and for a number of reasons. The most basic is philosophical, in the sense that it is agreed that the two sets of rights are indispensable elements in enabling individuals to live dignified and fulfilling lives. It is also important for doctrinal reasons. The equal status of the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reflects a hard-fought ideological and political compromise, not only between capitalist and communist approaches in the 1940s, but between continuing differences in perception over what societies should value most and the terms of the social contract between the State and its inhabitants. It is the glue that has held the package together and the understanding that enables the reconciliation of otherwise starkly competing visions. It reflects the need to achieve an equilibrium among goals that will inevitably always be in tension with one another. Whether the equal importance of the two sets of rights can also be demonstrated empirically is a matter over which economists and others have long duelled, and instrumentalist arguments continue to be heavily relied upon in making the case for goals such as gender equality. But, regardless of the conclusions that might emerge from such research, the validity of the underlying principle cannot be held hostage to the uncertainties of empirical analyses.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 51
- Paragraph text
- The main conclusion to be drawn for the purposes of the present report is that, insofar as the universal periodic review is an accurate indicator, States attach very limited importance to the recognition, institutionalization and accountability dimensions of economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 66
- Paragraph text
- It is clear that the United Nations could make use of these various precedents in order to shape an approach to compensation as part of a broader package that would provide justice to the victims and be affordable.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 68
- Paragraph text
- Peacekeeping. This is an increasingly crucial part of the role of the United Nations in many parts of the world. The potential for success depends on various factors, but pre-eminent among them are legitimacy, credibility and responsiveness. In Haiti, the reputation of MINUSTAH has been gravely tarnished by the cholera episode. And the message that the Organization is unprepared to accept responsibility for negligent conduct which gives rise to dire consequences, despite the fact that it has been definitively found guilty both in the scientific world and in the court of public opinion, will not have escaped other States that are contemplating agreeing to host or participate in peacekeeping operations. While there is a big difference between sexual abuse and negligent conduct, there is an important message for the United Nations in the Haiti context to be learned from the independent review on sexual abuse in the Central African Republic. The review panel warned that "when the international community fails to care for the victims or to hold the perpetrators to account", it amounts to a betrayal of trust.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Violence
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- Scholars have criticized the Organization's "shabby formalistic maneuvers to avoid the very principles of the Rule of Law that they urge on the rest of the world", its "preposterous" failure to provide a remedy, its pursuit of "peacekeeping without accountability", its compounding of a public health disaster with a public relations disaster, its dangerous "legalism" which "effectively insulate[s] the organization from accountability", and its "repeated failures … to provide adequate due process to those affected by its decision-making [which] has had a detrimental effect on the Organization and its activities".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 43
- Paragraph text
- In the limited space available in the present report, it is impossible to undertake a systematic review of the experience, to date, with justiciability, but some broad conclusions emerge from the voluminous and often excellent literature.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 61
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- The problem is that, unless the basic building blocks of recognition, institutionalization and accountability are in place, it is highly unlikely that other more sophisticated techniques are going to be effective. It is difficult to imagine less fertile ground for many such initiatives than contexts in which economic and social rights remain unrecognized as rights, where the relevant institutions are not working effectively to promote economic and social rights as rights and where there is little or no concept of economic and social rights accountability in place. It is hoped, of course, that these new techniques, developed and promoted externally, can compensate for, or even overcome, the inhospitable domestic environment within which they will eventually have to be implemented. But again, there would seem to be a strong element of wishful thinking in the expectation that States that have not been able or willing to put the foundations of economic and social rights in place, will be likely to implement even more demanding and sophisticated techniques for monitoring and promoting economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Another very positive account argues that "the broad normative framework of ESC rights has attained a high degree of specificity in terms of content as well as efficacy of implementation mechanisms, most importantly at the national level".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Despite these impressive reporting figures, in half of the concluding observations the Committee recommended that measures be taken to ensure the "direct applicability" of the Covenant in the domestic legal order. In slightly less than half of the concluding observations, the Committee also recommended that the State concerned seek to raise awareness of the justiciability of the rights. And in almost every concluding observation (27), the Committee recommended that legislation be enacted or amended in order to implement Covenant obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 14
- Paragraph text
- It is not just the world's poorest citizens who are at risk. The capitalist system, which has become the dominant global economic system, is "a tremendously powerful system … in terms of sheer productivity, innovation and dynamism", but it is ultimately unsustainable unless the excesses and predations that are built into the way it functions are tempered by systems that ensure the basic welfare of the many who would otherwise be victims of the "uncertainty, instability and anti-social effects generated by capitalist processes".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 56
- Paragraph text
- If the floodgates argument was in fact being invoked in good faith, then it would augur very badly indeed for the United Nations since it would imply that there are actually many cases in which the Organization has unfairly refused to provide a remedy and that the United Nations will not budge unless litigation is initiated. In fact, the dismissal of the victims' claims by the United States Court of Appeals is likely to generate even more pressure on victims and advocates to try to persuade authorities and courts in other countries that the immunity of the United Nations in such situations leads to an unconscionable result that needs somehow to be rectified.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- A closely related argument is that if the United Nations "settles with private claimants or enters into dispute resolution processes that result in a finding that compensation is owed, it may have a chilling effect on the Organization". But this suffers from the same infirmities as the floodgates argument. If United Nations practices in terms of third-party liability are consistent and fair, and if claims are settled on a basis that is sustainable for the Organization, there is no reason why there would suddenly be a rash of claims that are not currently being pursued. The fear of creating a bad precedent is a classic argument to justify inaction in the face of injustice.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- It has been suggested that "countries are choosing social rights constitutionalism over other ways to promote well-being and the fulfilment of basic human needs". A systematic and detailed study of economic and social rights in national constitutions provides detailed evidence to support this optimistic assessment; 195 constitutions were examined with a view to identifying which of 16 separate economic and social rights were recognized and, where they were recognized, whether the constitutions classified them as justiciable or aspirational (such as directive principles of State policy). Over 90 per cent of the Constitutions recognized at least one economic and social right. In around 70 per cent of the Constitutions, at least one economic and social right was explicitly justiciable and around 25 per cent of them recognized 10 or more justiciable economic and social rights. In order of frequency, the justiciable rights concerned education, trade unions, health care, social security, child protection and environmental protection. The study found that those six rights appear in over half of all Constitutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 34
- Paragraph text
- While the present report cannot do justice to the richness of these survey findings, it is clear that impressive levels of constitutional recognition have been achieved and that many more economic and social rights are considered to be justiciable, and in many more countries, than was previously thought to be the case. However, if it turns out that the practical consequences of such constitutional recognition have been very limited, there would be much less to celebrate and attention would need to be focused on supplementary or alternative approaches. Thus an assessment of the significance of these findings requires a careful examination of the empirical consequences of constitutional recognition in terms of enhanced accountability and improved levels of realization of economic and social rights. The main challenges in this regard are considered in the section below on accountability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- Second, even when economic and social rights are both constitutionally recognized and justiciable, there are many factors that can limit the resulting outcomes. Lawyers might not invoke such rights, a lack of resources and the absence of legal aid might make it impossible for many violations of economic and social rights to be litigated and potential applicants might be denied standing to sue. Even when cases get to court, the judiciary might not be independent, the judicial culture might not be amenable to scrutinizing the sort of issues raised by economic and social rights and the remedies available might be so weak as to deter such litigation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 60
- Paragraph text
- If the recognition, institutionalization and accountability building blocks were solidly in place in many countries, it would follow that the main focus of advocacy efforts to promote a higher level of real-life enjoyment of economic and social rights should be elsewhere. It may be that this assumption explains why so many of those working to promote economic and social rights, whether through the United Nations or regional organizations or at the national level, have now turned their attention to matters such as developing new methodologies for measuring compliance with the Covenant, exploring new and much more detailed indicators, working out how such indicators can be disaggregated to take account of a wide range of specific factors - such as gender, age, ethnicity and social origin -, identifying means by which to ensure that decision-making processes are transparent and participatory, and developing more detailed normative guidelines, recommendations, principles and other such instruments that elaborate upon or seek to operationalize governmental obligations in relation to economic and social rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- The principle of accountability provides the overarching rationale for the establishment of an international human rights regime. It operates at two levels. One involves State accountability to the international community, which has been promoted through the creation of monitoring mechanisms such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the universal periodic review process, and through regional mechanisms. The other involves ensuring that governments are accountable to their citizens and other rights holders. The right to a remedy is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law has attached particular importance to developing an understanding of the right to adequate, effective, prompt and appropriate remedies, including reparations. Remedies have also been highlighted in transitional justice contexts. In relation to economic, social and cultural rights, the Committee on those rights has stated in its general comment No. 9 that "appropriate means of redress, or remedies, must be available to any aggrieved individual or group, and appropriate means of ensuring governmental accountability must be put in place" (para. 2).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph