Document Library

Key Text Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Activism: A Training Resource

Author: Human Rights Center
Date: 2000
Size: 150 pages (4 MB)

Access full text: available online

Summary

What are economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights? What needs to be done to assert them? This manual, by the University of Minnesota, aims to encourage an expansion of activism for the promotion and protection of ESC rights. It presents not only information on laws and standards related to these rights, but addresses the strategy and tactics that organisations and individuals need to consider to promote economic, social and cultural rights.

In developing a rights-based approach, it is important to re-examine the thinking and acting on issues that confront disadvantaged individuals and groups. The human rights movement has historically sought to ensure that those who were silenced through civil and political repression regained their voice, visibility and freedom. The movement, however, has neglected the rights of millions of people made invisible as a result of social, economic, and cultural policies. The dignity of an individual cannot be divided into two spheres - that of civil and political dignity and that of economic, social and cultural. The individual must be able to enjoy freedom from want as well as freedom from fear.

The ultimate goal of ensuring respect for the dignity of an individual cannot be achieved without that person enjoying all of his or her rights. Ultimately, it is a question of putting the human being in the centre, not as an individual, but as part of a community and an ecological system. Therefore:

Deprivation of ESC rights has a negative effect on the dignity of a person. The dignity and well being of human beings is the foundation of a rights-based approach.
A right entails an obligation on the part of the government to respect, promote, protect and fulfil it.
A rights-based approach involves not charity or simple economic development, but a process of enabling and empowering people to claim their rights.
The process of staking a claim asserts an individual's ownership of his or her entitlement. It also defines the right and raises awareness that what has been claimed is not a privilege or an aspiration, but a right.
Enjoyment of ESC rights enhances the freedom of individuals by increasing their capabilities and their quality of life.
Hunger and deprivation in some sections of the population, even in rich countries, seem to have a connection to a lack of public policy and intervention.

Advancing ESC rights requires a new paradigm and a new perception of rights.

It is essential to establish the intrinsic value of ESC rights.
Presenting poverty as a capability failure can lead to demands for appropriate social arrangements through placing obligations on states.
A capability approach can be a means of assessing the impact of discrimination based on factors such as race, class, caste and gender.
It should be stressed that it is not a question of one form of government or another, but a question of the type of governance that ensures the realisation of ESC rights.
Civil and political rights should not be allowed to take precedence over ESC rights. In reality, they go hand in hand.

Access full text: available online

Source: Human Rights Resource Centre, 2000, ‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Activism: A Training Resource’, University of Minnesota, Human Rights Resource Centre, South Minneapolis