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3.2 Minimum requirements

All states have a duty to ensure minimum human rights, regardless of resource constraints. With regard to
Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ESC), minimum rights include food for the population, basic health
care, basic shelter and accommodation and basic education.

“Every government in the world has certain responsibilities regarding its citizens. The human rights legal
framework spells out those responsibilities with the following three obligations:

• Respect - This obligation obliges the governing institutions not to interfere with economic, social and
cultural rights.

• Protect - the obligation to protect requires governments to prevent third parties, such as corporations,
from interfering in any way with the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights

• Fulfil - tthe obligation to fulfil requires governments to adopt the necessary measures to achieve the full
realization of economic, social and cultural rights” 1

Unfortunately, not all countries provide minimum requirements for citizens. Many people in the world live
in extreme poverty, without accommodation and money for food. Fighting poverty is one of the objectives
of the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. It focuses on reaching out to excluded groups, creating
opportunities for all people to enjoy universal human rights and economic achievements.

Source: https://blog.cognifit.com/respect/

1 https://www.cesr.org/what-are-economic-social-and-cultural-rights