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The article concerns the situation of refugees and immigrants from countries outside the European Union /European Economic Area with regard to social cash benefits in Denmark. At present these immigrants are treated different than inhabitants of Danish origin since their social cash benefits are reduced to a considerable extent. The conditions of these immigrants are discussed from an international human rights perspective and the article applies two approaches: a poverty threshold approach and a non-discrimination approach. The author concludes that the reduced social cash benefits are in violation of Denmark’s human rights obligation under socio-economic as well as civil-political treaties. In this way the article confirms that human rights are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The circumstances in Denmark during the last 12–14 years with regard to immigrants’ rights to social cash benefits has made it natural and even necessary to consider the situation from a legal as well as a political perspective. Thus it seems that the problems in Denmark for immigrants with regard to social cash benefits will be solved by politicians in Parliament in a foreseeable future whereas the human rights machinery because of its sluggishness has only to a limited extent been able to demonstrate its effectiveness.

By discussing the issue of justiciability as a general human rights issue the article seeks to get closer to an understanding of the legal implications of the notion of the indivisibility, interdependence and interrelation of all human rights – economic, social, cultural rights and civil and political rights. The article departs from the tripartite human rights obligation – to respect , to protect and to fulfil – and argues that the obligations to respect and to protect all human rights give rise only to few controversies as regards justiciability. The article goes on to underline that civil rights are fulfilled by means of social initiatives, and that civil rights in fact become social rights at the fulfilment level. The obligation to fulfil human rights marks the transition from a state governed by law paradigm to a welfare state paradigm , since not only social rights but also civil rights are resource demanding (and subject to progressive realization). Furthermore, since the obligation to fulfil human rights is usually worded with little precision, this obligation turns out to be the one that gives rise to most scepticism as regarding justiciability. The integrated human rights approach undertaken by the European Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Committee disproves, however, the traditional understanding of social rights as non-justiciable at least when they appear as fulfilment elements in civil rights. This is one good reason to exploit the potential of the integrated approach even though it does not provide general conclusions on the justiciability issue. The study of the integrated approach gives a new perspective on the discussion of the remaining justiciability issue, i.e., fulfilment of social rights when they appear disconnected from civil rights. This latter subject is, however, far from being exhausted.