This paper investigates the level of protection of economic and social rights guaranteed by the European Social Charter when its contracting States face a serious economic and financial crisis. There is an inherent tension between the enhanced need for social protection by individuals hit by the crisis and the decrease of resources available to States to offset the negative consequences of it. Since the beginning of the current crisis, the European Committee of Social Rights, the monitoring body of the European Social Charter, stated that the crisis “should not have as a consequence the reduction of protection of the rights recognised by the Charter” and that the contracting States are therefore “bound to take all necessary steps to ensure that the rights of the Charter are effectively guaranteed at a period of time when beneficiaries need the protection most” (Conclusions, 2009). This paper aims to verify the meaning and scope of such assertions against the previous ‘case law’ of the Committee. It emerges from both the Committee’s reviews of State reports and the decisions on collective complaints that the contracting States may legitimately take retrogressive steps in the costly realization of economic and social rights under the Charter, provided that sufficiently extended protection is preserved and the most vulnerable individuals in the society are provided with sufficient means, alongside other conditions on the aims, necessity and proportionality of the measures. The Committee’s practice also shows that, in its view, the contracting States cannot disregard the satisfaction of these basic levels of economic and social protection without violating the European Social Charter, especially in light of the “normative partnership”, founded on the value of human dignity, that exists between the European Social Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.
La prassi del Comitato europeo dei diritti sociali relativa alla garanzia degli standard di tutela sociale in tempi di crisi economica
MOLA, Lorenza
2013-01-01
Abstract
This paper investigates the level of protection of economic and social rights guaranteed by the European Social Charter when its contracting States face a serious economic and financial crisis. There is an inherent tension between the enhanced need for social protection by individuals hit by the crisis and the decrease of resources available to States to offset the negative consequences of it. Since the beginning of the current crisis, the European Committee of Social Rights, the monitoring body of the European Social Charter, stated that the crisis “should not have as a consequence the reduction of protection of the rights recognised by the Charter” and that the contracting States are therefore “bound to take all necessary steps to ensure that the rights of the Charter are effectively guaranteed at a period of time when beneficiaries need the protection most” (Conclusions, 2009). This paper aims to verify the meaning and scope of such assertions against the previous ‘case law’ of the Committee. It emerges from both the Committee’s reviews of State reports and the decisions on collective complaints that the contracting States may legitimately take retrogressive steps in the costly realization of economic and social rights under the Charter, provided that sufficiently extended protection is preserved and the most vulnerable individuals in the society are provided with sufficient means, alongside other conditions on the aims, necessity and proportionality of the measures. The Committee’s practice also shows that, in its view, the contracting States cannot disregard the satisfaction of these basic levels of economic and social protection without violating the European Social Charter, especially in light of the “normative partnership”, founded on the value of human dignity, that exists between the European Social Charter and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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