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This column explores the intersection between human rights and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It opens with an overview of the crisis before turning to the current global state of affairs’ impact on human rights enjoyment. Having addressed key issues that arise in terms of State obligations and how international human rights law as it stands might be deployed to address them, it focuses on how the crisis constitutes an opportunity to advance new horizons in human rights, particularly those related to energy and the implications of responses to crises for the right to a safe, clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. The piece makes clear that if they are to remain effective and relevant, human rights, and those responsible for applying and enforcing them, need to engage with the cost-of-living crisis head-on.

BACKGROUND: While low sodium intake (40 years with stable blood pressure (BP), without heart failure or postural hypotension were randomised to intensive dietary counselling (target sodium intake

The last three decades have seen an explosion of academic, advocacy and policy-maker interest in both the theory and the practice of children’s rights. There is a growing global body of strategic litigation focused on the advancement of those rights through positive legal and/or social change. In this context, child rights have primarily played an ‘outward-facing’ role: used as a schema that should constrain or mandate the actions of external decision-makers that are the targets of litigation. However, children’s rights have not generally been used as a framework by which to assess, and as necessary, critique strategic litigation practice—i.e. as a lens to be turned inwards by litigators to consider the extent to which their practice is consistent with child rights standards. This article considers the case for child rights strategic litigation (CRSL) practice that is child rights-consistent. In doing so, it identifies CRSL-relevant rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and outlines how such rights arise in the litigation process. It ultimately posits that child rights can serve as a clear, multi-faceted framework that enables litigators to strengthen their existing practice in a legitimate, unified and coherent way.

Centring on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the work of its treaty-monitoring body, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, this chapter addresses the key sources, developments, standards, and debates regarding international children’s rights law. In tackling questions related to CRC rights, obligations, duty-bearers, jurisdiction, and limitations, the chapter makes clear the strengths and weaknesses of both the CRC and the enforcement mechanisms associated with that treaty. The chapter provides an in-depth discussion of the past record and future prospects of the CRC in terms of responding meaningfully to the diverse challenges faced by children.

This article focuses on the vexed relationship between human rights and economic policy reform. It opens with an exploration of the reasons for the historic and contemporary nonalignment and disconnect between these areas. It then turns to an overview of the 2019 Guiding Principles on Human Rights Impact Assessments for Economic Reform Policies, developed under the mandate of UN Independent Expert on debt and human rights. Having introduced the different contributions to the Special Issue, the authors conclude by addressing the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis for the relationship between human rights and economic policy reform. Will this crisis serve as an opportunity to accelerate mutual understanding or will human rights concerns remain subordinated to economic ones?

Oesophageal cancer is the 6th most common cause of cancer related death worldwide. The current standard of care for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) focuses on neoadjuvant therapy with chemoradiation or chemotherapy, however the 5-year survival rates remain at

Background and purpose In addition to lowering stroke risk, warfarin use is also associated with reduced stroke severity in patients with atrial fibrillation and acute ischaemic stroke. It was sought to determine whether the effect of non-vitamin-K oral anticoagulants (NOACs), compared to warfarin, differed by stroke severity. Methods Phase III randomized controlled trials with participants who were randomized to receive NOACs or warfarin for stroke prevention in the setting of non-valvular atrial fibrillation were identified. Stroke was classified into two categories, fatal or disabling stroke and non-disabling stroke, and meta-analyses were completed for both outcomes and for comparative case fatality of stroke amongst trials. Results Five randomized controlled trials met our inclusion criteria. In clinical trials evaluating the NOACs usually prescribed in clinical practice (four trials), acute stroke was reported in 1403 (1.86%) participants, 787 (1.04%) in the NOAC group [386 (0.51%) fatal or disabling, 401 (0.53%) non-disabling] and 616 (0.82%) in the warfarin group [367 (0.49%) fatal or disabling, 249 (0.33%) non-disabling]. On meta-analysis NOACs were significantly superior to warfarin for fatal or disabling stroke (odds ratio [OR] 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.66-0.89, I2 = 21%) and non-disabling stroke (OR 0.85; 95% CI 0.73-0.98, I2 = 2%). The case fatality of stroke was no different between groups (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.75-1.13, I2 = 0%), but the point estimate favoured NOACs. Conclusion In phase III trials of NOACs, for prevention of stroke in atrial fibrillation, NOACs are associated with a lower risk of both fatal/disabling and non-disabling stroke compared to warfarin.

Más de 30 años después de la promulgación de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas sobre los Derechos del Niño (CDN), es cada vez más frecuente que las constituciones nacionales incluyan disposiciones específicas sobre los derechos del niño. Esto es especialmente cierto en situaciones en las que un país adopta una constitución completamente nueva; pero, adicionalmente, muchos países han enmendado las constituciones existentes para añadir nuevas provisiones sobre los derechos de los niños. La protección constitucional de los derechos de los niños también es objeto de un nuevo cuerpo de literatura y debates académicos. Este ensayo explorará brevemente algunas de las lecciones que podrían ser beneficiosas para los países que están considerando la constitucionalizarían de los derechos de los niños. Comenzará exponiendo los argumentos a favor de incluir una disposición específica sobre los derechos de los niños en una constitución nacional. A continuación, analizará las experiencias comparativas de la constitucionalización de los derechos de los niños en una variedad de países. Por último, considerará los puntos clave que debe considerar un país al inicio de un proceso conducente a la promulgación de una disposición constitucional dedicada a los derechos de los niños.

Este tomo presta atención y profundiza en la situación de diversos grupos que requieren especial protección de cara a la garantía real y sustantiva de los derechos sociales, poniendo a disposición de quienes leen, una serie de elementos, argumentos y herramientas para incluir estos grupos dentro de la discusión sobre derechos sociales. Comenzando con la exploración de las formas que las constituciones de diferentes países utilizan para fomentar la igualdad de derechos en sus países, este tomo presenta reflexiones en torno al rol de la Constitución en la garantía de los derechos sociales de pueblos indígenas, mujeres; niños, niñas y adolescentes; personas con discapacidad y personas adultas mayores.

Background The benefits of aspirin for primary prevention of stroke are uncertain. Methods We performed a cumulative meta-analysis of trials investigating aspirin for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a focus on stroke. We assessed the effects of aspirin on non-fatal stroke, hemorrhagic stroke, non-fatal myocardial infarction, all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, major gastrointestinal bleeding, and an analysis of net clinical effect, in populations without a history of clinical or subclinical cardiovascular disease. Summary of review results Among 11 trials (157,054 participants), aspirin was not associated with a statistically significant reduction in non-fatal stroke (odds ratio, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.85 to 1.04) but was associated with an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (odds ratio, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.06 to 1.56). Aspirin was not associated with a statistically significant reduction in all-cause mortality (odds ratio, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.92 to 1.03) or cardiovascular mortality (odds ratio, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.85 to 1.03). Aspirin was associated with a reduction in non-fatal myocardial infarction (odds ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.94) and an increased risk of major gastrointestinal bleeding (odds ratio, 1.83; 95% CI, 1.43 to 2.35). Using equal weighting for non-fatal events and major bleeding, we observed no net clinical benefit with aspirin use for primary prevention. Conclusion Our meta-analysis reports no benefit of aspirin for primary stroke prevention.

This chapter addresses the ever-deepening relationship between child poverty and child rights. In doing so, it takes as its central focus the best known and most important child rights instrument, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The chapter opens with a justification of why, given the range of different approaches available to and adopted by anti-poverty practitioners and scholars, child rights is an appropriate lens through which to consider child poverty. The chapter then moves on to consider the relationship between the CRC and child poverty, focusing both on the Convention itself and on how that instrument has been interpreted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) when considering causes and impacts of, and responses to, child poverty. In doing so, the chapter provides a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the current international child rights framework in terms of its ability to address the complex social global challenge of child poverty. It concludes with a consideration of a key contemporary development in terms of child poverty that presents both risks and opportunities in child rights terms: the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.

Background: While low sodium intake ( Methods: This is a protocol for two phase IIb randomised, two-group, parallel, open-label, controlled, single centre trials. Participants were aged >40 years with stable blood pressure, unchanged anti-hypertensive medications, willing to modify diet and provided written informed consent. Participants were excluded for abnormal sodium handling, heart failure, high dose diuretics, immunosuppression, pregnancy/lactation, postural hypotension, cognitive impairment, high or low body mass index (BMI) or inclusion in another trial. STICK participants had estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 30-60ml/min/1.73m2 and were excluded for acute kidney Injury, rapidly declining eGFR; known glomerular disease or current use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. For COSIP, participants were excluded for known kidney or cardiovascular disease. Participants were randomized to usual care only (healthy eating) or an additional sodium lowering intervention (target Discussion: These Phase II trials will explore uncertainty about low sodium intake and cardiovascular and kidney biomarkers, and help determine the feasibility of low sodium intake. Trial results will also provide preliminary information to guide a future definitive clinical trial, if indicated. Trial registration: STICK: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02738736 (04/04/2016); COSIP: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02458248 (15/05/2016)

Privatization is an ever more dominant model of economic and social rights (ESR) realization. Contracting out, public-private partnerships, and other approaches by which the private sector takes responsibility for, or supports the state in, delivering ESR-related goods and services are being advanced aggressively at both the national and supranational levels, with international financial institutions playing an especially influential role. Thus far, however, there has been relatively little attention paid to privatization in ESR scholarship and practice, resulting in a significant lacuna from both a normative and an empirical perspective. This gap is perhaps most striking—and worrying—in relation to the work of those international bodies mandated with interpreting and applying the ESR standards under international law. Taking as its starting point the delineation of ESR obligations in terms of the tripartite typology of respect, protect, and fulfill outlined by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, this article considers how that framework (and the human rights treaty-monitoring bodies which employ it in their work) addresses privatization from an ESR perspective. Highlighting an excessive emphasis on the obligation to protect to the exclusion of other relevant levels of obligation, the author asserts that such an approach is reflective of a failure to conceptualize privatization and the state’s role with regard to such properly—a failure that has very serious implications for the ability of the ESR framework as it stands to capture rights-harming actions in the context of privatization effectively. Arguing for a shift to the obligation to fulfill, the author contends this alternative approach would contribute significantly to the ability of ESR law as it stands to capture—and address—the full scope of state decision-making and (in)action at issue in situations of privatization. The article concludes with observations on recent moves by the Committee which though in the right direction leave much work to be done.

Background: The association of lipid lowering therapy and intracerebral hemorrhage risk is controversial. Methods: We performed a cumulative meta-analysis of lipid lowering trials that reported intracerebral hemorrhage. Statin, fibrate, ezetimibe, PCSK9, and CETP trials were included. We explored whether the association of lipid lowering therapy and risk of intracerebral hemorrhage may vary by baseline low-density lipoprotein (LDL) level, mean change in LDL or baseline cardiovascular risk of population. Results: Among 39 trials (287,651 participants), lipid lowering therapy was not associated with a statistically significant increased risk of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in primary and secondary prevention trials combined (odds ratio [OR], 1.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], .98-1.28). Lipid lowering was associated with an increased risk of ICH in secondary prevention trials (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.00-1.38), but not in primary prevention trials (OR, 1.01; 95% CI, .78-1.30), but the test for interaction was not significant (P for interaction = .31). Meta-regression of baseline LDL or difference in LDL reduction between active and control did not explain significant heterogeneity between studies for ICH risk. Of 1000 individuals treated for 1 year for secondary prevention, we estimated 9.17 (95% CI, 5.78-12.66) fewer ischemic strokes and .48 (95% CI, .06-1.02) more ICH, and a net reduction of 8.69 in all stroke per 1000 person-years. Conclusions: The benefits of lipid lowering therapy in prevention of ischemic stroke greatly exceed the risk of ICH. Concern about ICH should not discourage stroke clinicians from prescribing lipid lowering therapy for secondary prevention of ischemic stroke.

Background: A run-in period is often employed in randomised controlled trials to increase adherence to the intervention and reduce participant loss to follow-up in the trial population. However, it is uncertain whether use of a run-in period affects the magnitude of treatment effect. Methods: We will conduct a sensitive search for systematic reviews of cardiovascular preventative trials and a complete meta-analysis of treatment effects comparing cardiovascular prevention trials using a run-in period (“run-in trials”) with matched cardiovascular prevention trials that did not use a run-in period (“non-run-in trials”). We describe a comprehensive matching process which will match run-in trials with non-run-in trials by patient populations, interventions, and outcomes. For each pair of run-in trial and matched non-run-in trial(s), we will estimate the ratio of relative risks and 95% confidence interval. We will evaluate differences in treatment effect between run-in and non-run-in trials and our and our priamry outcome will be the ratio of relative risks for matched run-in and non-run-in trials for their reported cardiovascular composite outcome. Our secondary outcomes are comparisons of mortality, loss to follow up, frequency of adverse events and methodological quality of trials. Conclusions: This study will answer a key question about what influence a run-in period has on the magnitude of treatment effects in randomised controlled trials for cardiovascular prevention therapies.

Recent years have seen a growing understanding of the relationship between poverty and human rights, an explosion in awareness of the status of children as right-holders, and increasing linkages being made between human rights and child poverty in the development context. Galvanized by mounting concerns about the impacts of economic globalization and the 2007–2008 financial and economic crises on children, these developments have unsurprisingly focused academic and practitioner attention on those rights of children that are most directly related to ensuring children’s survival and development needs – namely, children’s economic and social rights (ESR). This chapter focuses on the content of, and obligations imposed by, children’s ESR. It opens by locating ESR under the CRC in terms of the broader international human rights framework on ESR. It then goes on to discuss the duties of States and other actors in terms of those rights, focusing in particular on Article 4 CRC. In doing so, it concentrates in particular on the interaction between the work of the Committee and that of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The chapter concludes with a discussion of what lies ahead for children’s ESR, highlighting crucial challenges, including law’s persistent relative neglect of child ESR, the potential impact of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the ongoing marginalization of children within global society.

This chapter addresses the ever-deepening relationship between child poverty and child rights. In doing so, it takes as its central focus the best known and most important child rights instrument, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The chapter opens with a justification of why, given the range of different approaches available to and adopted by anti-poverty practitioners and scholars, child rights is an appropriate lens through which to consider child poverty. The chapter then moves on to consider the relationship between the CRC and child poverty, focusing both on the Convention itself and on how that instrument has been interpreted by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child when considering causes, impacts, and responses to child poverty. In doing so, the chapter provides a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the current international child rights framework in terms of its ability to address the complex, social global challenge of child poverty. It concludes with a consideration of a key contemporary development in terms of child poverty that presents both risks and opportunities in child rights terms: the post-2015 Sustainable Development agenda.

Breast milk is the only source of the essential amino acid tryptophan (TRP) in breast-fed infants. Low levels of TRP could have implications for infant neurodevelopment. The objectives of the present study were to compare the relationship of TRP and its neuroactive pathway metabolites kynurenine (Kyn) and kynurenic acid (KynA) in preterm and term expressed breast milk (EBM) in the first 14 d following birth, and the relationship of TRP metabolism to maternal stress and immune status. A total of twenty-four mothers were recruited from Cork University Maternity Hospital: twelve term (>38 weeks) and twelve preterm (P< 0·05), free TRP levels were lower (P< 0·05). Kyn, KynA and the Kyn:TRP ratio increased significantly in term EBM from day 7 to day 14 (P< 0·05), but not in preterm EBM. TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 were higher in day 7 preterm and term EBM in comparison with day 14. There were no significant differences between term and preterm EBM cortisol levels. Increased availability of total TRP, lower levels of free TRP and alterations in the temporal dynamics of TRP metabolism in preterm compared with term EBM, coupled with higher EBM inflammatory markers on day 7, may have implications for the neurological development of exclusively breast-fed preterm infants.

In this paper, we consider the question of the justiciability of social and economic rights from both a conceptual and an experiential perspective. We first review some of the major concerns that are frequently raised in relation to whether social and economic rights can, or should be, adjudicated by courts, drawing on commentary from experts and judicial and quasi-judicial bodies considering this question. This is followed by an overview of the growing body of jurisprudence from domestic courts and regional and international bodies that have adjudicated social and economic rights. This is provided in order to convey a better sense of how the adjudication of social and economic rights operates in practice, and the way in which courts and other bodies address the issues that have been raised with regard to the justiciability of these rights.

This study aimed to discover whether co-analgesia with tramadol or additional morphine was more effective for patients who still had severe pain despite being given 10 mg intravenous morphine in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU).All eligible patients were consented and recruited to the trial pre-operatively, but only a small subgroup – whose pain was not successfully controlled (pain score 6/10 or more) after receiving 10 mg of morphine in the PACU—were then randomized to enter the trial and receive, in a double blinded fashion, the analgesic study drug; which consisted of either a further 10 mg of morphine, or 100 mg of tramadol, titrated intravenously to control their pain. The groups were compared as to: the time to readiness for discharge, the patient’s pain scores over time, and the presence of side effects.There was no statistically significant difference in any of the outcomes measured. The time to readiness for discharge from PACU was 119 minutes in the morphine group and 120 minutes in the tramadol group. However in approximately half the cases who entered the trial (i.e., where pain had not been controlled with the pre-enrollment baseline 10 mg of morphine in PACU) neither a further 10 mg of morphine nor 100 mg of tramadol effectively relieved the patient’s pain.We found no difference between additional morphine and co-analgesia with tramadol in this study. Patients who don’t respond to reasonable doses of opioids in PACU are very likely to be unresponsive to further opioids, and other non-opioid analgesic techniques (such as regional anesthesia) should be considered early in this group of patients.

The horizontal application of human rights to non-state actors (NSA) is an evolving and contested legal area both comparatively and at the international level. In light of this, the article discusses mechanisms by which NSA who violate constitutional economic and social rights (ESR) may be held directly accountable by ESR-holders. Its central focus is the horizontal application of constitutional ESR protections to private relationships, where neither party has a state/public function or state nexus. The article reviews developments in two domestic constitutional systems, those of Ireland and South Africa, in order to demonstrate and explain the different approaches that have been adopted to the issue of horizontality by both the constitutional drafters and the courts in those jurisdictions. It employs this comparative analysis to explore many of the key normative objections that have traditionally been raised under liberal constitutional theory in relation to the application of human rights obligations—and those imposed by ESR in particular—to NSA. The article concludes with an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Irish and South African legal models and approaches in terms of holding NSA liable for violations of ESR, outlining key lessons that these national experiences have for the direct horizontal application of ESR at the international level.

Recent years have seen an explosion in methodologies for monitoring children’s economic and social rights (ESR). Key examples include the development of indicators, benchmarks, child rights-based budget analysis and child rights impact assessments. The Committee on the Right of the Child has praised such tools in its work and has actively promoted their usage. Troublingly, however, there are serious shortcomings in the Committee’s approach to the ESR standards enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which threaten to impact upon the efficacy of such methodologies. This article argues that the Committee has failed to engage with the substantive obligations imposed by Article 4 and many of the specific ESR guaranteed in the CRC in sufficient depth. As a result, that body has not succeeded in outlining a coherent, comprehensive child rights-specific ESR framework. Using the example of child rights-based budget analysis, the author claims that this omission constitutes a significant obstacle to those seeking to evaluate the extent to which states have met their ESR-related obligations under the CRC. The article thus brings together and addresses key issues that have so far received only very limited critical academic attention, namely, children’s ESR under the CRC, the relationship between budgetary decision-making and the CRC, and child rights-based budget analysis.

This chapter focuses on an area where a high level of harmonisation between international and regional human rights protection is evident: the rights of the child. All of the major regional human rights systems – the African, the Inter-American and the Council of Europe – accord explicit protection to child rights and the key institutions within those systems have engaged directly with such rights in a range of different contexts. The aim of this chapter is not, however, to provide a comprehensive analysis of how regional judicial and quasi-judicial bodies have approached children’s rights. Rather, its focus is on the extent to which the regional systems take into account the key international instrument on children’s rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In doing so, the authors will consider those entities’ use of the work of the body mandated to monitor that instrument, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.Ultimately, this chapter concludes that the growing reference to, and employment of, the CRC by regional human rights bodies has contributed to an increasing harmonisation of regional approaches to children’s rights. This level of harmonisation is a strong testament to the influence of that instrument given both the diverse challenges faced by children in Europe, Africa and Americas, and the variations in approach to children’s rights in the basic instruments of the regional human rights systems under consideration. Although there are many factors that result in the CRC playing a different role vis-a-vis the work of the various regional mechanisms, it is increasingly clear that the CRC is the tie that binds in child rights protection at the regional as well as the international level.

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.

The paper centres on the battle(s) that have been, and are being, fought over children's rights under the Irish Constitution. The author assesses whether the Irish Constitution, as it stands, qualifies as a ‘children's rights constitution’ under which children are afforded special recognition in terms of their rights rather than their welfare. The likelihood that any constitutional amendment proposed in the near future will succeed in bringing the Irish Constitution into the ‘children's rights’ category of constitution, is considered. The author addresses both the issue of the alleged desirability of a ‘children's rights constitution’ and the extent to which the Irish Constitution (or any constitution, in fact) can and should protect the various rights and interests of children.

During development, the nervous system is assembled and sculpted through a concerted series of neurodevelopmental events orchestrated by a complex genetic programme. While neural-specific gene expression plays a critical part in this process, in recent years, a number of immune-related signalling and regulatory components have also been shown to play key physiological roles in the developing and adult nervous system. While the involvement of individual immune-related signalling components in neural functions may reflect their ubiquitous character, it may also reflect a much wider, as yet undescribed, genetic network of immune–related molecules acting as an intrinsic component of the neural-specific regulatory machinery that ultimately shapes the nervous system. In order to gain insights into the scale and wider functional organization of immune-related genetic networks in the nervous system, we examined the large scale pattern of expression of these genes in the brain. Our results show a highly significant correlated expression and transcriptional clustering among immune-related genes in the developing and adult brain, and this correlation was the highest in the brain when compared to muscle, liver, kidney and endothelial cells. We experimentally tested the regulatory clustering of immune system genes by using microarray expression profiling in cultures of dissociated neurons stimulated with the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-alpha, and found a highly significant enrichment of immune system-related genes among the resulting differentially expressed genes. Our findings strongly suggest a coherent recruitment of entire immune-related genetic regulatory modules by the neural-specific genetic programme that shapes the nervous system.

Increasing numbers of academics and practitioners are employing the language of economic and social rights (ESR) when conceptualizing the aims, scope and implementation mechanisms of transitional justice. Their contributions have added to an evolving debate on the boundaries of transitional justice. However, when employing rights language, the current debate on the economic and social dimensions of transitional justice frequently suffers from terminological and conceptual confusion. Problematically, it is not unusual for the claims made by transitional justice commentators with regard to ESR to be founded on apparent misconceptions about both the legal framework and the existing scholarship relating to ESR. Addressing these misconceptions in terms of four key dichotomies and suggesting the way forward, we prepare the ground for a more effective debate on the desirability and feasibility of incorporating ESR into transitional justice processes. In doing so, we assert that such a debate must be based on an accurate understanding of ESR and the obligations they impose. We conclude by demonstrating how inclusion of ESR considerations in transitional justice does not necessitate rethinking transitional justice as a whole.

Although often neglected by legal and policy analysis of the Eurozone crisis, an increasingly central dimension of that crisis and its management is dramatic changes to a very broad range of social rights and entitlements. These include rights relating to work as well as rights relating to a wide range of welfare entitlements such as rights to housing, health, food and social assistance. The aim of this research project is accordingly two-fold. It analyses, firstly, what has happened to social rights in a number of the Eurozone Member States most affected by the crisis: Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain. Secondly, it looks at the content, location and background of any fundamental rights’ challenges made to crisis-imposed changes to work and welfare rights in those state.