Human rights and the cost-of-living crisis

Abstract

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.