Rights and Value: Construing the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as Civil Commons

Abstract

This article brings together the United Nations’ International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and John McMurtry’s theory of value. In this perspective, the ICESCR is construed as a prime example of “civil commons,” while McMurtry’s theory of value is proposed as a tool of interpretation of the covenant. In particular, McMurtry’s theory of value is a hermeneutical device capable of highlighting: (a) what alternative conception of value systemically operates against the fulfilment of the rights enshrined in the ICESCR; (b) the increased relevance of the ICESCR with regard to the current global economic crisis; (c) the parameters to determine the degree to which the rights at issue have been realized. Reflections on environmental implications of both the ICESCR and McMurtry’s axiology conclude the article.

Organizational and social justice paradoxes in EDI

“…Broad consensus on the social value (therefore, also the importance) of social justice, brings the responsibility for social justice closer to employers. Social value has to do with “the ultimate meaning of how we are to live” (McMurtry, 2009, cited in Baruchello and Johnstone, 2011 ) and with human survival that is founded on collaboration ( Corning, 2003 ). Paradoxically, there is an assumption in the domain of workplace DEI that employers subscribe to the value that society — universally — attaches to the inclusion and equality of disenfranchised individuals and groups.…”

From the Cancer Stage of Capitalism to the Political Principle of the Common: The Social Immune Response of "Food as Commons"

“…In the first instance, the editors consider the currently existing human right to adequate food, as set forth in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (art.11) and detailed in General Comment 12 of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 94 , 95 Whilst noting that this right, if implemented, would mitigate some of the worst exigencies of the current capitalist food system, it would not question the logic of that system, since the realisation of the right to food is premised on the purchasing of food in commodity market exchanges. 10 Further, they contend that the individualistic, Western-centric and state-centric nature of human rights discourse and practice can be ‘disempowering’ of community aspirations to advance collective claims for justice.…”