The Development of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in International Law

Untitled

“…It is difficult to argue that UN member states are less prone to human rights abuses because of the work of, for example, the UNHRC; but, what is certain is that the wide range of human rights 'instruments' -mainly the nine conventions but also the declarations and 'optional protocols' (treaty additions, largely for procedures of inclusion or exemption) -provide an effective and reflexive sphere to develop international consensus (Lee and Lee, 2010). The condition of consensus can be understood as discourse, for UN treatises function as semantic authorities (establish the definition of terms), epistemic frameworks (facilitate the process of making a situation intelligible to a rights-based judgement, or a rights-based analysis), an appending mechanism for cognate legal terms (such as selfdetermination, discrimination, freedom and enjoyment) and further provide fields of eligible scrutiny (from practices of slavery, servitude, forced labour, to press or media communications, marriage, family and youth, to statelessness, asylum and refugees) (Ghai, and Cottrell, 2004;Leckie, Gallagher, 2006;Senyonjo, 2009;Riedel, Giacca, and Golay, 2014;Schmid, 2015 ).…”

Exploring the Road to Justiciability of the Human Right to Water in Suriname

“…These Covenants are legally binding and enjoy wide support by states. 41 In addition, other relevant conventions and treaties which apply to specific groups also assist in providing a legal often explicit basis for a human right to water.…”

Strengthening the Human Right to Sanitation as an Instrument for Inclusive Development

“…3 indicates that the rights provided for in the ICESCR have a core content which guarantees that the minimum essential level of each right is achieved. States are expected to fulfil the core content except this becomes impossible due to resource constraints, for instance; see Riedel, Giacca and Golay (2014). Nonetheless, non-discrimination is an immediate obligation which does not require additional resources per se but requires available resources to be used to address the needs of the marginalised and vulnerable groups.…”