Abstract
Introduction. This article investigates the universal power of socioeconomic rights assessing their theoretical conceptualization and practical implication. Methods. Taking theoretical and empirical research into account – at the level of public ethics and political theory – the article carries out a comparative analysis of the elements of global economic justice theory, moral universalism and institutional understanding of human rights of Thomas Pogge and the critical theory of political and social justice and the moral constructivist conception of human rights of Rainer Forst. Analysis. On the one hand, Pogge’s cosmopolitan approach underlines serious noncompliance of socioeconomic rights at the global level because of the unjust distribution of rights and duties enforced by the current global institutional order. In this vein, the protection of socioeconomic rights is conceived as a (moral) negative duty not to deprive people of secure access to a basic human rights object, and socioeconomic rights, by imposing upon them unjust coercive social institutions. On the other hand, Forst’s perspective maintains that each right needs to be constructed on the very basic moral right to reciprocal and general justification which is conceived as the most universal and basic claim of every human being. Results. Drawing on the above-mentioned outlooks on socioeconomic rights, the universal power of socioeconomic rights is assessed in light of the satisfaction of universal basic needs, whose object is also the object of socioeconomic rights – a ‘conditio sine qua non’ for a worthwhile life – and the justification of the assigned duties at the global level.
Highlights
This article investigates the universal power of socioeconomic rights assessing their theoretical conceptualization and practical implication
It would be wrong to argue that socioeconomic rights have universal power only because they are not adequately protected – which is, in any, case a fact [22; 23] and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated socioeconomic inequalities [32] – as well as denying the fact that their under-fulfilment may be to some extent related to the lack of theoretical understanding of their universal relevance
This article aims at filling up the above-mentioned lacuna and fostering the debate on this topic addressing Pogge’s and Forst’s conceptions of moral right and socioeconomic rights seeking to answer the following question: What is the universal power of the socioeconomic rights and to what extent the duties they entail can be justified?
Summary
The current global political and socioeconomic transformations, along with the recent global cross-cutting challenges of which the COVID-19 pandemic is a vivid example, are calling the humankind to find moral desirable and practically feasible solutions to transversal problems, such us the global (under)fulfilment of socioeconomic rights. This article aims at filling up the above-mentioned lacuna and fostering the debate on this topic addressing Pogge’s and Forst’s conceptions of (universal) moral right and socioeconomic rights seeking to answer the following question: What is the universal power of the socioeconomic rights and to what extent the duties they entail can be justified? In political philosophy and international relations, the dominant theories in the Russian scientific context are those of (moral and political) realism and statism [14] which are sceptical towards any form of universalism and believe that shared conception of moral norms and the practical enforcement of the fair distribution of rights and duties are possible only within the borders of a political community [18]. Forst recognizes the importance of cultural peculiarities in the elaboration and implementation of fundamental rights describing the global context as an important context of justice [9, p. 227; 8; 10] let alone of protection of fundamental socioeconomic rights and seeking to avoid parochialism and cultural positivism when it comes to define fundamental rights and their universal power [11, p. 452]
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