WFNTFR 70 15
WINTFR 2015State
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rights. While the resources available for fulfilling human rights
obligations may not be as plentiful in small states as in large states, states
may adopt such policies to the maximum extent given their available
resources.
This section has attempted to explore if states also have obligations
to respect, protect, and fulfil the reasonable minimum core of economic
and social rights outside their borders. From this analysis it is clear that
no straightforward extraterritorial obligations of states to respect, protect
and fulfil human rights emerge. The least controversial of them are
extraterritorial obligations to respect the reasonable minimum core of
economic and social rights. Such state obligations develop from
international and national levels. The extraterritorial obligations to
protect and fulfil, which impose positive obligations on states, require
states to exercise diligent monitoring and allocate funding, are yet to be
developed from their embryonic forms. More specifically, state
obligations to protect the reasonable minimum core of economic and
social rights exist at least where territorial states exercise authority or
effective control over private actors. However, effective obligations
should be established in the future at domestic and international levels to
examine alleged extraterritorial violations of economic and social rights.
Nonetheless, states currently are already obliged not to extraterritorially
infringe on the reasonable minimum core of economic and social rights.
V. CONCLUSIONS
The enjoyment of economic and social rights is crucial for survival
and wellbeing of an individual. States have both existing territorial
obligations, and emerging extraterritorial obligations to respect, protect
and fulfil. They should not infringe upon the reasonable minimum core
of economic and social rights, not only when requiring states to repay
their public debt, but also before loan is granted. The overall aim of this
article was to examine the territorial and extraterritorial obligations of
states to observe economic and social rights. While it can be concluded
that territorial states have obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the
reasonable minimum core of economic and social rights, it is more
controversial to submit that those obligations exists also extraterritorially
on the basis of a duty to cooperate. Nonetheless, extraterritorial
obligations to respect the reasonable minimum core of economic and
social rights presently obliges states to violate them outside their
territory. States must be accountable for the failure to meet their
obligations under economic and social rights. If Eastern and Southern
European states are unable to provide even the reasonable minimum core
of economic and social rights, extraterritorial obligations of more
developed, often Northern, European States to respect the reasonable
minimum core arises. Europe is first and foremost a community based on
the fundamental rights of all of its members. Territorial states must