Article 22 – Economic, social, cultural rights

What does this right mean?

The core of this right is that all people have a right to develop themselves economically, socially and culturally. Socio-economic rights refer to the standard of living people have.

What is the history of this right?

There was some discussion on the wording of the text of Article 22. Should such rights for individuals be even included? States quickly agreed on a number of civil rights; the right to not be tortured, protection of life. But social and economic rights requiring the same protection was something many states had to get used to. States had a tendency to assign these social and economic rights a marginalised position compared to civil rights and political rights. Especially Latin American states were proponents of recognising social, economic and cultural rights.

After the Second World War, the welfare states went into development in the Netherlands. More and more arrangements to secure certain provisions for civilians were coming about. Although the Dutch welfare state started relatively late, the Netherlands now have an extensive social-security system.

Where and how is this right documented?

The rights coming from Article 22 of the UDHR are also called positive obligations, because the state has to take action. This is unlike negative rights such as the prohibition on torture or the right to freedom of expression, in which the state is not allowed to do something, specifically not infringe upon one of the rights.

Article 22 of the UDHR is worded very broadly. That is why the United Nations have drafted a treaty to document all socio-economic rights with positive obligations for the state: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESOCUL).

The social, cultural and economic rights are also in the Constitution of the Netherlands. Article 20 of the Constitution shows that the state is responsible for distributing wealth and that everyone has the right to livelihood security. Compare this to Article 34 of the EU Charter, which states that member states should strive to help people secure a dignified existence.

The state of the Netherlands is also required to provide social and cultural development of Dutch citizens, according to Article 22 Subsection 3 of the Constitution of the Netherlands (cultural right). Furthermore, the government is obligated to strive for the right to healthcare, education and housing (social rights).

How topical is this human right?

The Netherlands have an extensive welfare system. Dutch citizens can apply for various benefits, such as healthcare benefits, rent benefits and childcare benefits. The childcare benefits received negative news coverage because of the Dutch childcare benefits scandal. Childcare benefits is an arrangement for parents to receive a contribution to pay the costs of childcare. A few years ago, a big number of parents were informed they had to return this contribution. The government used algorithms to assess whether or not there was any fraud taking place in the childcare benefits application process. The criteria used for this were discriminatory and included whether or not people had Dutch citizenship. Retrospectively, many families were wrongfully accused of fraud. They had to return the benefits and got into enormous debts because of this. Research from Statistics Netherlands showed that over 1115 children from these families were eventually removed from their homes. There are ongoing investigations into the connection between the childcare benefits scandal and the custodial placements.

It is clear that algorithms can lead to discrimination, and that oversight and concious use of these algorithms are of the greatest importance to human rights.