Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Does international human rights law address inequality, diversity, and fairness in the human condition? This course examines the treaties, jurisprudence, and crystallized State and non-State practices on the codification, formation, interpretation, and implementation of international economic, social, and cultural rights (ESC rights) around the world, scrutinizing how "progressive realization", "non-retrogression", and "non-discrimination" principles affect the interpretive meaning and evolution of ESC rights' operational implementation in discrete cases. The course will weave analysis of jurisprudential, operational, programmatic, as well as dispute resolution developments on ESC rights, beginning with the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to its nexus with the rest of the nine fundamental human rights treaties [e.g. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families (ICMW)], conventions under the International Labour Organization (ILO), the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, as well as regional human rights instruments (the American Convention on Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the European Social Charter). By exploring deficits in the evolving institutions and interpretive practices to respect, protect, fulfill, and remedy ESC rights, the course aims to introduce university students to challenges in the global, regional, and local implementation of ESC rights, and to provoke collaborative thinking on future directions for effective ESC rights realization and protection.