Judicial Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The implementation of economic, social and cultural rights is a most pressing item on the international human rights agenda. Millions of people go without food, health, shelter, education, work, social security, not because the resources are unavailable to provide for these basic human rights, but because societies are badly governed, or democracy is lacking, or the rule of law is absent, or simply because there is a failure of understanding about how to go about the practical implementation of these rights. In the discussion of this issue and about the implementation of economic, social and cultural rights generally, it is sometimes heard that economic, social and cultural rights are rights of progressive application not capable of judicial determination. This volume seeks to bring together, for the first time, a collection of documents and case-law from different parts of the world, which shows the Courts at work in providing judicial protection of economic, social and cultural rights. One conclusion stands out from these cases: the courts do have a role to play in providing judicial protection of these rights; as the decisions reproduced in this volume make clear: the era of justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights has arrived.