There is no concrete definition of social rights, but they can be called subject rights because social rights are the rights of subjects or the people under the constitution arising from the social contract. In other words, these rights are different from natural rights deriving from the natural law. It is said that the state is built by the people. No supernatural or divine power has created or built it. Therefore, every state must protect its citizens, particularly those destitute individuals, groups and communities. In this 21st century, almost all states are considered public welfare states (states supposed to guarantee the social rights of their people in their respective countries) in the world. However, all these social rights are closely connected to human rights and are important to everyone. Strictly speaking, social rights are connected to the right to life of every individual. When a child is born, he/she becomes a member of society and as a social member; he/she gets social rights.

Although social rights are closely related to human rights and the right to life of every person, the history of these rights doesn’t seem to be very old nor do the states mention clearly that these rights are the social rights in their respective constitutions Acts. This doesn’t mean that social rights have not been addressed by any countries. These rights are addressed by many countries for many years but not in the concrete or codified form, in conjunction with other rights i.e. human rights, fundamental rights, civil rights, political rights etc. These rights were not codified for a long time till the European Council issued a policy recommendation for its member states to promote access to social rights for young people from destitute neighborhoods in 2015. If we study it, we can firmly say that social rights are based on the ideas of equality and guaranteed access to essential social and economic goods, services, and opportunities to every individual irrespective of one’s religion, opinion, caste, race, or gender and so on. Additionally, these rights can be taken as an understanding of what is required to satisfy people’s social needs by promoting social inclusion and social solidarity. In this way, social rights are not only moral and social rules but legal rules too. But many analysts have distinguished these rights from civil rights. According to them, civil rights are absolute and must be provided in any civilized society whereas social rights are relative or are necessarily contingent on a society’s level of economic development. 

What Kinds of Rights come under Social Rights?

 As a member of society, all the rights of people related to food, shelter, cloth, health, education, social security, etc. belong to social rights. However, we should keep in mind that these rights tend to promote social inclusion and social solidarity. It means people from destitute and marginalized communities are given priority to get access to quality education, secure employment, health care etc. Primarily, access to food, health, shelter, education, employment and public services could be taken as social rights.

Significance:

Social rights are as important as a society. Just as it is difficult to imagine a person without society, so it is difficult to imagine a person without social rights. It means social rights are closely connected with the life of a person living in a society. They are very important to everyone, particularly to destitute, minority and marginalized individuals, groups or communities. Since these rights include the above-mentioned things i.e. From access to adequate food to social safety or protection; equality, well-being and dignity of any person are the hubs of these rights. Without social rights, no one can survive or live peacefully. Any person is like a paralyzed patient in absence of social rights and we know that the paralyzed person can’t move his/her body despite having full body parts. Let’s clarify it with some examples. If a baby is born in a poor family then obviously, he/she becomes poor & he/she won’t have proper foods to eat. In that case, he/she has a right to adequate food which is one of the social rights. Getting food to survive is his/her social right that a state must fulfil because the state is like a guardian of the people and the people are like offspring. So, the state has to guarantee the social right of the people in a public welfare state. Similarly, every single baby gets the right to life after birth, regardless of gender, family status or economic condition.  If the child is deprived of any of its rights then the state must take stern steps through its various mechanisms against the wrongdoer and should make every effort to compensate the victim and save his or her life.

The significance of social rights is increasing day by day all over the world. On the one hand, these rights are incorporating core values of every society such as equality, dignity, fairness, freedom etc. by providing detailed guidance for policy and practice. On the other hand, these rights are establishing a culture of accountability for social policies. Here, accountability is to be understood in many forms ranging from the ballot box to the media to the court premises. Social rights are considered emancipatory, empowering, and transformative for people to bring happiness and peace to society and are widely relevant to the “everyday lives” of millions of people.

Social Rights in Nepal:

Social rights in Nepal have been addressed in the constitution of 2015 A.D. since its preamble. Most of the social rights are addressed under or in the name of the fundamental rights and duties. The major social rights mentioned in the constitution are the right to freedom, equality, discrimination, religion, culture, education, employment,  health, food, shelter, social security, justice, rights of the child, Dalit, women, senior citizens and consumer.

“our problems stem from our acceptance of the filthy, rotten system.”

Dorothy Day

Out of these rights, some rights such as the right relating to education, the right to employment, and rights relating to health, food, and shelter are very serious and sensitive matters in the current situation. It would not be an exaggeration to say that these rights are only confined to the piece of paper. Today, thousands of people are dying due to starvation, and thousands of children are illiterate or are deprived of going to school. Many peoples are dying from not getting treatment on time. Millions of citizens of this country are bound to leave for foreign employment. But the state or government has done nothing to address such burning issues despite it being mentioned as fundamental or social rights in the constitution.

The way forward:

To advance and protect social rights, first, the legislature should make laws addressing the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution. In the absence of law, no case is generally allowed to enter the ordinary courts and cannot be enforced or executed accordingly. Due to a lack of adequate resources and means, Nepal cannot guarantee all the mentioned fundamental rights (social rights) in practice, but the state or government can guarantee the social rights of the people in general by controlling widespread stinking and tragic corruption. To promote and protect the social rights of the people, executive and legislative determination is urgently required. The pressure from civil society advocating the social rights of the people is also needed. Social rights literature should be written effectively and broadly by addressing many issues including health, education and work. Also, judicial determination or the role of the court should be crucial and active so that social rights can be strongly advocated and argued before the courts. For this, first, the judges should have the appropriate expertise, and secondly, they shouldn’t be conservative.

Conclusion:

Social rights are often viewed and analyzed by linking to human rights, fundamental rights, legal rights, political rights, civil rights, etc. Except for a few countries including the revised European social charter, most countries have incorporated social rights into their constitution and laws without naming their social rights. And the importance of social rights is expanding across the world. People started to say housing is a social or human right and education is a right not a commodity, etc. As social rights deal primarily with how people live and work together and the basic needs of life, they are gaining momentum. It is not difficult to implement explicit social rights in practice, but to implement implicit social rights, the door of the court must be knocked on eventually depending on the systems of the concerned country. In this regard, Ms. Dorothy Day said, “our problems stem from our acceptance of the filthy, rotten system.” But at last, we shouldn’t forget that social rights are not a panacea.