Addressing Economic and Social Rights Violations by Non-state Actors through the Role of the State: A Comparison of Regional Approaches to the ‘Obligation to Protect’
*Assistant Director, Human Rights Centre, School of Law, Queen's University Belfast (aoife.nolan{at}qub.ac.uk).
This article centres on the state's obligation to ensure that third party non-state actors do not interfere with the enjoyment of economic and social rights (ESR) by rights-holders. In it, the author analyses and compares the different ways in which regional bodies deal with the obligation to protect ESR, seeking to account for the variety in their approaches. Amongst other things, the article highlights the way in which the regional bodies in question have referred to, and relied on, the jurisprudence of other international and regional human rights entities in fleshing out the state's obligation to protect ESR under their own legal frameworks. While focusing on the obligation to protect ESR in particular, the author's findings cast light more generally on the interpretation and application of ESR by the regional human rights bodies under consideration.
I would like to thank Professor Brice Dickson and the two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. All errors that remain are the author's own. I am also grateful for the comments of attendees at the International Law Association Conference, which was held at the University of Sussex in April 2007.