The Right to the Continuous Improvement of Living Conditions: Responding to Complex Global Challenges

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What does the right to the continuous improvement of living conditions in Article 11(1) of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights really mean and how can it contribute to social change The book explores how this underdeveloped right can have valuable application in response to global problems of poverty, inequality and climate destruction, through an in-depth consideration of its meaning. The book seeks to interpret and give meaning to the right as a legal standard, giving it practical value for those whose living conditions are inadequate. It locates the right within broader philosophical and political debates, whilst also assessing the challenges to its realisation. It also explores how the right relates to human rights more generally and considers its application to issues of gender, care and the rights of Indigenous peoples. The contributors deeply probe the meaning of living conditions, suggesting that these encompass more than the basic rights to housing, water, food, and clothing. The chapters provide a range of doctrinal, historical and philosophical engagements through grounded analysis and imaginative interpretation. With a foreword by Sandra Liebenberg (former Member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), the book includes chapters from renowned and emerging scholars working across disciplines from around the world.

Reviews

In addressing a long-neglected element of international human rights law ... this ground-breaking volume makes a key contribution to human rights scholarship. The excellent essays advance understanding in multiple scholarly areas, including the theory and implementation of economic and social rights, sustainable development, economic equality and the aims and achievements of the post-WW2 human rights project. This important book will be a must-read for academics, activists and policy-makers working in these areas. * Aoife Nolan, Professor of International Human Rights Law, University of Nottingham, UK *
The right to the continuous improvement of living conditions has been neglected in the past, and risks being ridiculed in a future in which the need to save the planet from uninhabitability will require radically different economic strategies and approaches to growth. This book brilliantly rescues the concept and shows how it could and should become central to the most pressing debates in the human rights field. * Philip Alston, John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, New York University, USA *

Author Bio

Jessie Hohmann is Associate Professor and Beth Goldblatt is Professor, both in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia.