Respecting, Protecting and Fulfilling Economic and Social Human Rights: A UN Economic Security Council?

The late Mahbub ul Haq, the chief architect of the UNDP’s annual Human Development Report was among the first to propose the formation of an Economic Security Council (ESC) within the UN. Haq envisioned an expansive ESC that would implement a program based on security in its fullest sense: security for people, from food security to ecological security. The UNDP expanded on Haq vision and argued for an early warning system as part of the ESC to plan assistance in internal conflicts. The UNDP mentioned five quantitative indicators for an early warning system for human security: income and job security, food security, human rights violations, ethnic and other conflicts, and the ratio of military to social spending. In my new book, The Global New Deal: Economic and Social Human Rights in World Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003), I propose building on the Haq/UNDP proposal for a new ESC. Strengthening international monitoring and regulation of state and non-state economic actors seems central to any strategy for respecting, protecting and fulfilling economic and social human rights. Yet, the Haq/UNDP proposal seems overly ambitions. What I propose in the Global New Deal is a new streamlined ESC to invigorate the moribund Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). My paper for ISA will develop these ideas for an effective ESC in detail. ECOSOC has clearly had little success in establishing mechanisms to prevent economic destitution and suffering. A new design needs to be proposed for an effective ESC centered on economic and social rights fulfillment. The new ESC, for example, could focus like a laser on the implementation of the UNICEF/UNDP 20:20 proposal for human development. My paper will thoroughly develop these ideas and, hopefully, demonstrate the viability of this approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]