Abstract
This article discusses the direct enforceability of economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights in the Inter-American System, also called ‘the direct approach’. It starts by presenting two apparent conflicts between certain provisions of the American Convention on Human Rights (“the Convention”) and the Protocol of San Salvador (“the Protocol”) related to the ESC rights recognised in Article 26 of the Convention and the mechanisms of protection of such rights. The author concludes that ESC rights were never intended to be directly enforceable before the Inter-American System and therefore the direct approach is not feasible, except for the right to unionisation and the right to education, the only rights expressly conceived as directly enforceable by the Protocol. The recent decision of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Acevedo-Buendía et al. v. Peru is also studied. The Court declared that it has contentious jurisdiction over alleged violations of ESC rights, but it took no notice of the Protocol. This article stresses that every interpretation on ESC rights in the Inter-American System must not ignore the Protocol of San Salvador.