Professor John Tasioulas, Director of the Yeoh Tiong Lay Centre of Politics, Philosophy & Law, has authored two reports for the World Bank that have been published this week.

Governments, no matter what level of resources are at their disposal, are obligated to make sure that people living under their jurisdiction enjoy at least essential levels of protection of each of their economic, social, and cultural rights.*

The first report ‘Minimum Core Obligations: Human Rights in the Here and Now’ explains the idea of the 'minimum core obligations' associated with economic, social and cultural human rights - obligations that must be immediately realised by all states, as opposed to obligations that may be progressively realised over time. The report offers a five-step procedure for identifying such obligations and defends the idea of minimum core obligations against the objections that are levelled at them.

The second report,  ‘The Minimum Core of the Human Right to Health’ explores the idea of 'minimum core obligations' in relation to the human right to health, drawing on international law, as well as regional and domestic legal systems. It argues that the minimum core obligations associated with the right to health can help us better advance the Sustainable Development Goals concerned with health - especially when it comes to questions of prioritisation in relation to scarce health resources.

Read the reports on the World Bank website.

Visit Professor Tasioulas’ web profile on King’s Research Portal.

 

Forthcoming event

The Centre of Politics, Philosophy & Law will hold a symposium with The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, on 20 March that will explore connections between Professor Tasioulas’ work on minimum core obligations and the UN Secretary General's Expert Panel's report on Access to Medicines, of which Justice Kirby was a leading member.

Full details will be announced on our events webpage.

 

 *Citation: International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights