ECONOMIC, SOCIAL & CULTURAL RIGHTS
Defending the rights that make dignity possible
Economic, social, and cultural rights, to work, to education, to housing, to participate in cultural life, are frequently treated as secondary to civil and political rights, despite being just as essential to human dignity. HDRI's Economic, Social & Cultural Rights team works to reverse that hierarchy, producing research that treats these rights as enforceable entitlements rather than distant aspirations.
Our work examines the policy frameworks governing labour rights, social protection systems, housing access, and educational equity, with particular attention to how economic precarity compounds across generations and across the other thematic areas HDRI studies. We track how these rights are enshrined, or neglected, in EU and international legal frameworks, and we advocate for policy that closes the distance between rights recognized on paper and rights realized in practice.
Areas of focus
Labour rights, social protection systems, and the fight against economic precarity
Educational equity and access to cultural participation
Housing access and the right to adequate standards of living
The implementation gap between EU/international ESCR frameworks and lived reality
