The Right to the Minimum Social Welfare in International Human Rights System

Protection of human dignity requires guaranteeing freedoms, privileges and equal rights for individuals and the imposition of positive and negative obligations on members of international community and the establishment of human rights bodies for monitoring implementation of those rights. However, enjoinment of a minimum level of social welfare is the precondition to realizing the guaranteed rights. This article seeks to answer the questions as to the recognition, content, and elements of the right to the minimum level of social welfare, as well as its normative place among rules of international law. An overview of international human right law instruments and scholarly thoughts reveals that certain elements of the right have already been recognized in international law i.e. the right to food, housing, health, clothing, and social security, although the expression of "right to social welfare" is not referred to in human rights instruments. It seems that the rules governing certain elements of such a right have found their way to become jus cogens.