INTRODUCTION
Generally speaking, economic, social and cultural rights are part and parcel
of inalienable human rights with which man is naturally endowed upon
birth. In a responsible and ideal society, all the human rights including
economic, social and cultural rights are recognized, respected, guaranteed,
enforced, implemented and even prompted by all and sundry, the state
inclusive. These rights which have been universally recognized are
otherwise known as ECOSOC RIGHTS.
However, before discussing in detail, economic, social and cultural rights
which constitute the gravamen of this write-up, it is pertinent to deal with
terminological issues by attempting to know the meaning of a ‘Right’. What
is a “Right”?
DEFINITION OF TERMS
"Right" is a versatile term meaning correct, suitable, or morally proper, as
well as indicating the direction opposite to left, or a legal/moral entitlement.
It signifies accuracy.
According to Osbornes Law Dictionary of current English, a Right is defined
as:
“An interest recognized and protected by the law,
respect for which is a duty and disregard of which is
wrong”
This definition is on all fours with that of Black’s Law Dictionary (8 th Edition,
page 1347) which defines ‘Right’ as:
“That which is proper under the law, morality or
ethics. Right also means to know right from wrong,
something that is due to a person by just claim, legal
guarantee, or moral principle-the right of liberty. A
power, privilege, of immunity secured to a person by
law -the right to depose of one’s estate. A legally
enforceable claim that another will do or will not do a
given act; the violation of which is a wrong-, a breach
of duty infringes one’s right. The interest, claim or
ownership that one has in tangible or intangible
property-a debtor’s rights in collateral-publishing
rights. The privilege of corporate shareholders to
purchase newly issued securities in amounts
proportionate to their holdings. The negotiable
certificate granting such a privilege to a corporate
shareholder”
A legal scholar, John Chipman Gray, in his book “The Nature and
Sources of law, page 8-9 (2d ed. 1921)”, opines that:
“Right is a correlative to duty; where there is no duty
there can be no right. But the converse is not
necessarily true. There may be duties without rights.
In order for a duty to create a right, it must be a duty
to act or forbear. Thus, among those duties which
have rights, corresponding to them do not come
within the duties, if such there be, which call for an
inward state of mind, as distinguished from external
acts or forbearances. It is only to acts and
forbearances that others have a right. It may be our
duty to love our neighbor, but he has no right to our
love”.
Ordinarily, right means power of free action. It refers, inter alia, to the
economic, social and cultural advantages or benefits to which man has a
just claim morally, legally and ethically. It is different and distinct from a
privilege. From the above definitions only a right recognized and protected
by law can be considered as a right; Otherwise, it is just a privilege.
WHAT THEN ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
Human rights strictly speaking are those sets of rights referred to as
inalienable, which are also specifically and particularly recognized and
protected by law. Every human being is naturally endowed with and is
entitled to the enjoyment of such rights except by due process of law. They
are human because they are fundamental.
Another legal scholar, M. Cranston in his book titled: “Human Rights:
Real and Supposed quoted in D/D, Rapheal (ed) Political Theory and
the Rights of man (1967) Bloomington, Indian University Press page
52”. Opined that:
“A human right is something of which no one may be
deprived without a great affront to justice. These are
certain deeds, which should never be done, certain
freedoms, which should never be invaded,
something’s which are supremely sacred”.
One of the most distinguished jurists ever produced by Nigeria, Kayode
Eso JSC, re-affirmed the importance of human rights in RANSOME KUTI
V. A-G OF THE FEDERATION (1985) 2 NWLR (Pt. 6) 211, 230, in the
following words:
“it is a right which stands above the ordinary laws of
the land and which in fact is antecedent to the
political society itself. It is a primary condition to a
civilized existence… and what has been done by our
constitutions…. is to have these rights enshrined in
the constitution so that the rights could be
“immutable” to the extent of the “non immutability”
of the constitution itself”.
From the above definitions of human rights, it is obvious that those rights
that are termed fundamental human rights and which are specifically
codified in our statutes particularly Chapter IV of the Constitution of Federal
Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended, are not only recognized and
protected, but are also enforceable in law courts.
WHAT ARE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS?
These are simply rights that enable man to have a reasonable and decent
standard of living in the society. In accordance with the provisions of
Chapter II of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as
amended, every citizen in Nigeria shall be afforded the opportunity to
develop his full potentials economically, socially and culturally to the utmost
of his ability. Unfortunately, however, the contrary is the case as these
rights are not in any enforceable in a court of law. This informs the reason
why some countries of the world have codified some fundamental laws
regarding the implementation and enforcement of economic, social and
cultural rights in their grundnorm, the constitution. The right to a decent
living is unarguably a corollary to the right to life. To be saddled with less
than decent living standard is to demote human beings to the base level of
animals.
ECONOMIC RIGHTS
An Economic right is nothing but the right of man to be gainfully employed
in order to share a decent and adequate standard of living in the society.
The state is enjoined to ensure the provision of job opportunities to all
persons without discrimination on grounds of belief, religion, gender,
political and ethnic affiliations. In this respect, it is expected that the
Government should provide an enabling economic environment to improve
on the living conditions of the citizens. Without this, life, as in the
Hobbesian state of nature, would be “short, nasty and brutish”.
ASSAULT ON ECONOMIC RIGHTS BY MILITARY JUNTAS
Unfortunately, the economic rights of many Nigerian citizens have been
seriously undermined by successive military and civilian Administrations
(See Annual Report on Human Rights in Nigeria, 1990-Civil Liberty
Organisation (CLO).). In the locust days of the General Ibrahim Babangida
administration, the nationally acclaimed maximum dictator, and self-styled
“evil genius”, the Nigerian economy was badly managed and terribly crises-
ridden, thus subjecting poor Nigerian citizens to squalor and abject penury.
It was during the tenure of this military junta that subsidy in petroleum
products was removed and left to the vagaries of international market
forces. Nigerians were living from hand to mouth; both the employed and
unemployed. Inflation geometrically increased and consequently the poor
living conditions of Nigerian citizens became aggravated. All the civil
liberties organizations, Student Unions and the Nigerian Labour Congress
massively mobilized Nigerians to protest against the military Government
policy of removing oil subsidy. This did not in any way deter him. In fact, the
protests led to the arrest and incarceration of many human rights and pro-
democracy activities. Many died in the struggle.
When the Babangida regime eventually responded to the economic crisis in
Nigeria with the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP),
the implementation of which rather aggravated the living conditions of a
vast majority of the citizens who were then living below poverty line, he
went scot free. The United Nations Development Project (UNDP) Report on
Human Development better captured this sorry state to which Nigerians
were subjected by the Ibrahim Babangida regime in its report which scored
Nigeria 0.322 out of a maximum Human Development Index of (HD10 1.0).
That report automatically placed our country last in terms of citizen’s
access to resources needed for a decent standard of living, literally levels
and average life expectancy in a given country. The value of Naira also
experienced a monumental decline or downward slide vis-à-vis the dollar
and other international currencies under the Second Tier Foreign Exchange
Market (SFEM).
Another negative effect of SAP to Nigerians was the massive loss of
employment as many Nigerian workers of various levels were laid off. It
was reliably reported that not less than 10, 000 junior workers of Julius
Berger Construction Company in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja
(FCT), were unlawfully dismissed simply because they embarked on a
strike action to demand for better working conditions. This further worsened
the alarming abject poverty in the country.
With the advent of Democracy in Nigeria in 1999, (one would have
expected an aggressive and radical transformation of the economy in such
a way that adequate job opportunities would be created to quickly arrest
the alarming hunger and poverty that had ravaged the Nigerian masses).
Unfortunately, the civilian administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did
nothing practical to ameliorate the deplorable living conditions in Nigeria.
Instead, his administration introduced social and economic policies that
were not only strangulating in nature, but exclusively impoverished the
Nigerian masses who started living like “walking corpses”, as Ayi Kwei Ama
once possited, in his book, “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born”. (To be
continued).
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits
drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits
of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it
violates the rights of the individual”. (Thomas Jefferson).