Taking Economic,Social and Cultural Rights Seriously

The literature is now voluminous. A good place to start is Eide A (eds), Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: A Textbook (2nd ed, 2001).

The Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter Providing for a System of Collective Complaints, Council of Europe, ETS 158 (9 November 1995).

International Commission of Jurists v Portugal, Complaint No 1/1998, European Committee of Social Rights (9 September 1999).

Jorge Odir Miranda Cortez v El Salvador, Report No 29/01, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (7 March 2001).

The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights v Nigeria, Communication No 155/96, African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (2001).

All Special Rapporteurs have produced a number of UN reports that endeavour to deepen understanding of the rights within their mandates. My reports, press statements and various presentations can be found at <http://www2.essex.ac.uk/human_rights_centre/rth/>. See also <http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/health/right/index.htm> at 31 July 2006.

See, eg, Minister of Health v Treatment Action Campaign (2002) 5 SA 721.

See, eg, Paschim Banga Khet Samity v State of West Bengal (1996) 4 SCC 37.

See Hunt Paul , Reclaiming Social Rights: International and Comparative Perspectives (1996) 30 and 51.

See, eg, R (Limbuela) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2006] 1 AC 396.

Written and edited by Weir Stuart , Director of the Democratic Audit, Methuen is scheduled to publish this audit in September 2006.

For a detailed overview of a human rights approach to social policy in the context of poverty reduction, see UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Draft Guidelines: A Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies (2002). See also UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights and Poverty Reduction: A Conceptual Framework (2004).

For example, see my report to the UN Commission on Human Rights setting out a human rights based approach to health indicators: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, UN Doc E/CN.4/2006/48 (3 March 2006) at <http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G06/114/69/PDF/G0611469.pdf?OpenElement>

See Hunt Paul MacNaughton Gillian , Impact Assessments, Poverty and Human Rights: A Case Study Using the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health (2006).