Economic and social rights in the Constitution of Serbia

Abstract

The work is an attempt of the author to, in a relatively systematic way, presents the norms of Economic and Social Rights in the Constitution of Serbia from 2006. Before that, in the introduction the author refers to the commonplace with regard to human rights and their institutionalization, constitutionalization and internationalization. The process of institutionalization of human rights was started in England by adoption of the Great Charter of Freedoms (Magna Carta Libertatum) in 1215. Constitutionalization of human rights begins with the adoption of the first ten amendments to the US Constitution in 1791. French writers of the Constitution unlike the American in Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen proclaimed certain new rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of assembly, the right to free expression of thought, right to petition or freedom of culture. At first human rights were an asset to limit state power, but with new theories by which the state can not be seen only as a political organization, but as a community that has a socio-economic content, the state must guarantee to the citizens a certain corpus of economic and social rights by Constitution. Economic, social and cultural rights are classified as second generation of rights. Economic and social rights are directed to the fact that individuals are brought to the position that they can enjoy their civil and political rights. These rights, known as social welfare, are rights based on the principles of equality and solidarity, and their purpose is, inter alia, to help to the socially vulnerable members of the community. Constitutional act, which is important for the world the constitutional recognition of these rights is the Weimar Constitution from 1919. which predicted legislative measures to implement these rights. For the internationalization of these rights very important is Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 1966. The Constitution of the Republic of Serbia from 2006 regulates economic rights as human rights that contribute to the economic stability of man in society. Serbian Constitution provides: The right of ownership; right to inheritance; right to work; the right to strike and freedom of entrepreneurship as economic rights. The Constitution of Serbia predicts the following social rights (such as rights whose purpose is to provide social security in society and economic life worthy of man): the right to health care; the right to social protection; the right to a healthy environment; special protection of family, mother as a single parent and child. It also provides an overview of a Constitutional Court decision which is the subject of protection of the right to health insurance. Finally the author concludes that there is no possibility of achieving the full realization of civil and political rights, if the majority of members of a society do not have the basic existential conditions for the development of their physical and mental potential. An individual who leads the battle for bare physical survival, cares little for the rights such as the right to freedom of thought or electoral law. The state can not ,of course , sacrifice political rights to economic and social, but physical existence and personal development are precondition for the enjoyment of political rights.