DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights

Terra Lawson-Remer author Sakiko Fukuda-Parr author Susan Randolph author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:19th Feb '15

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

This paperback is available in another edition too:

Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights cover

One of the most ambitious legacies of the 20th century was the universal commitment to ensure freedom from want as a human right. How far have we progressed; to what extent are countries across the world living up to this commitment? This book charts new territory in examining the extent to which countries meet their obligations to progressively realize social and economic rights -- the rights to education, food, health, housing, work and social security. States have long escaped accountability for these commitments by claiming inadequate resources. The authors develop an innovative evidence based index, the Social & Economic Rights Fulfillment (SERF) Index and Achievement Possibilities Frontier methodology, making possible for the first time apples-to-apples comparisons of performance across very differently situated countries and over time. The book provides an overall global picture of progress, regress and disparities amongst and within countries and explores the factors influencing performance -- including whether treaty and legal commitments, gender equity, democracy/autocracy, and economic growth, explain good performance -- revealing surprising results. The data provide empirical evidence to resolve some long standing controversies over the principle of 'progressive realization'. The book concludes by observing how the SERF Index can be used in evidence based social science research, policy making and accountability procedures to advance social and economic rights. By defying the boundaries of traditional research disciplines, this work fundamentally advances our knowledge about the status of and factors promoting social and economic rights fulfillment at the dawn of the 21st century.

The Cold War debate in which the West stood for civil and political rights and the Soviet Union argued for economic and social rights was sterile and stillborn. It ignored the fundamental insight of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: human beings require both to live in dignity and flourish. Taking economic and social rights seriously will be as important for the survival of democracies in this century as safeguarding their heritage of civil and political rights. This book is an important and useful step in that direction. * Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University *
Economists who understand human rights are as rare as human rights proponents who understand economics. When these rare breeds collaborate on a project focused on the much neglected category of economic and social rights, as well as tackle the difficult question of quantification, the result is an indispensable tool for human rights decision-makers and practitioners. * Philip Alston, Professor, New York University Law School *
Human rights scholars and practitioners have long sought comparative measures for economic and social rights. This volume provides a well-defended and methodologically grounded set of measures that capture the idea of progressive realization in ways that have not been done before. This is a welcome addition to the systematic study of human rights that moves the field forward in an exciting and significant direction. * Todd Landman, Professor of Government and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Essex *
Fulfilling Social and Economic Rights is an exhilarating and extremely valuable addition to the literature on human development. Empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated, it will provoke lively debate and advance the cause of global justice. * Martha C. Nussbaum, The University of Chicago *

  • Winner of 2019 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order.

ISBN: 9780199735518

Dimensions: 231mm x 155mm x 23mm

Weight: 408g

304 pages