Are the Laws Still Poor? Reflections on the Right to Work Limiting the Right to an Adequate Standard of Living

Abstract

Despite the existence of a comprehensive human rights framework that includes the rights to work, social security, and an adequate standard of living, poverty persists. This article contends that these rights, rather than complementing each other, undermine one another and undermine discussions about human dignity. Louis Blanc's original conception of the right to work as a way to gain emancipation and shape the market has been reduced to a focus on individual working conditions. In the absence of concrete implementation plans, the right to an adequate standard of living is often conflated with the right to social security and assistance at the national level. Constitutions and court rulings impose the primary responsibility of working on individuals to achieve an adequate standard of living. Moreover, job market development has become the predominant strategy for addressing poverty. By emphasizing individual responsibility, the right to work is transformed into a duty to work, blurring the line between state intervention and individual responsibility. By focusing on work and working conditions, we stigmatize people in poverty and ignore its causes. Most importantly, human dignity unrelated to work and the right to an adequate standard of living are omitted from this human rights framework.