Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS IN PERIL FOR WANT OF RESOURCES? The drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) envisioned a world in which all human beings enjoyed ‘freedom from want’ as well as ‘freedom from fear’.1 In 1950, the United Nations General Assembly reiterated that ‘the enjoyment of civil and political freedoms and of economic, social and cultural rights are interconnected and interdependent’2 and that, ‘when deprived of economic, social and cultural rights, man does not represent the human person whom the Universal Declaration regards as the ideal of the free man’.3 The Preamble to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) recognises that ‘the ideal of free human beings enjoying freedom from fear and want can only be achieved if conditions are created whereby everyone may enjoy his economic, social and cultural rights, as well as his [sic] civil and political rights’.4 In light of such aspirations, and the need to understand and insist on these rights expressed by the former Secretary-General of the United Nations (in the epigraph above), how is humanity as a whole faring in its efforts to achieve 1 United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res 217A (III), UN GAOR, 3rd sess, 183rd plen mtg, UN Doc A/810 (10 December 1948), Preamble. 2 United Nations General Assembly, Draft International Covenant on Human Rights and measures of implementation: future work of the Commission on Human Rights, Resolution 421 E (V), (4 December 1950), [6]. This was further re-affirmed in the United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly Resolution, 543 (VI), 375th plenary mtg, (5 February 1952), Preamble. 3 Draft International Covenant on Human Rights and measures of implementation: future work of the Commission on Human Rights, above n 2, [6]. 4 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, opened for signature 16 December 1966, 993 UNTS 3 (entered into force 3 January 1976), Preamble ('ICESCR').