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RECONSTRUCTING STATE OBLIGATIONS TO PROTECT AND FULFIL SOCIO-ECONOMIC RIGHTS IN AN ERA OF MARKETISATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2021

David Birchall Open the ORCID record for David Birchall [Opens in a new window]
David Birchall*
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Law, London South Bank University, [email protected].
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Abstract

States hold international human rights obligations to protect rights-holders from infringements by third parties and to fulfil access to rights. States also increasingly rely on businesses to provide essential human rights resources, including for housing, food, and healthcare. How these obligations apply where States rely on businesses has not been adequately conceptualised, particularly regarding the scope of business infringements in this context, and how the obligation to fulfil relates to market regulation. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has not directly addressed these questions, but recent General Comments develop ambitious regulatory obligations in this area. However, their methodology is questionable, often collapsing the distinction between obligations to protect and to fulfil. This article reconstructs the obligations to provide distinct content under each. It delineates State duties to protect from profiteering and to fulfil human rights through market regulation. It concludes by arguing that this reconstruction may challenge central aspects of globalised capitalism based on the human rights harm inherent therein.

Keywords

international human rights lawbusiness and human rightsglobalisationInternational Covenant on EconomicSocial and Cultural Rightsmarketisationneoliberalism
Type
Shorter Articles
Information
International & Comparative Law Quarterly , Volume 71 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 227 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press for the British Institute of International and Comparative Law

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References

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13 OHCHR, Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (United Nations 2011) (hereinafter Guiding Principles). The author has published on the direct business responsibilities in relation to marketised rights. See Birchall, D, ‘Any Act, Any Harm, to Anyone: The Transformative Potential of “Human Rights Impacts” under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’ (2019) 1 University of Oxford Human Rights Hub Journal 120Google Scholar; Birchall, D, ‘Irremediable Impacts and Unaccountable Contributors: The Possibility of a Trust Fund for Victims to Remedy Large-Scale Human Rights Impacts’ (2019) 25 AJHR 428Google Scholar.

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43 ibid para 68.

44 ‘The obligation to respect requires the State, and thereby all its organs and agents, to abstain from doing anything that violates the integrity of the individual or infringes on her or his freedom, including the freedom to use the material resources available to that individual in the way she or he finds best to satisfy the basic needs.’ ibid para 67.

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48 Eide, Report on Food (n 42) para 68.

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50 ICESCR (n 5).

51 Maastricht Guidelines (n 46) para 6.

52 General Comment 24, Business (n 7).

53 Duties to facilitate are usually cited in General Comments, see eg CESCR, ‘General comment No. 23 on the right to just and favourable conditions of work (article 7 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)’ (7 April 2016) UN Doc E/C.12/GC/23, para 61.

54 General Comment 24, Business (n 7) 21–2.

55 ibid para 26.

56 ibid para 33.

57 ibid para 23.

58 ibid para 37.

59 See below for examples and see also Nolan, Privatization (n 8) 852–3.

60 General Comment 24, Business (n 7) para 21.

61 ibid para 24.

62 ibid para 19.

63 See, for similar blurred distinction, CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 18: The Right to Work (Article 6 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)’ (6 February 2006) UN Doc E/C.12/GC/18, para 25 (protect) and para 36 (fulfil).

64 CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 12: The Right to Adequate Food (Art. 11)’ (12 May 1999) UN Doc E/C.12/1999/5, para 15 (CESCR, Food).

65 CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 22 (2016) on the right to sexual and reproductive health (article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights)’ (2 May 2016) UN Doc E/C.12/GC/22, para 43.

66 ibid para 14.

67 ibid para. 17.

68 This framing is borrowed from the UNGPs (n 13) Principle 13.

69 General Comment 24, Business (n 7) para 15.

70 ibid para 18.

71 ibid para 19.

72 ibid para 19.

73 General Comment 23 (n 53) para 59.

74 ibid para 61.

75 J Lee and A Smith, ‘Regulating Wage Theft’ (2019) 94 WashLRev 759.

76 ibid 767.

77 CESCR, ‘General Comment No. 4: The Right to Adequate Housing (Art. 11 (1) of the Covenant)’ (13 December 1991) UN Doc E/1992/23, para 8.

78 Birchall, D, ‘Challenging the Commodification of Human Rights: The Case of the Right to Housing’ (2021) 19 Santa Clara Journal of International Law 1Google Scholar.

79 ibid.

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91 Maastricht Guidelines (n 46) para 6.

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