RRU in the media: Canada’s responsibility to address poverty
One in four Canadians now struggle to put food on the table. In an article published in The Conversation, Professor of Humanitarian Studies Tracy Smith-Carrier highlights how systemic failures to recognize and protect social and economic rights have left millions vulnerable.
Smith-Carrier, who is also the Canada Research Chair in Advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, calls for a transformation of how Canada approaches social justice. She urges the judicial system to hold policymakers accountable in their responsibility to ensure Canadians economic and social needs are met.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
“Although non-binding, the UN’s judicial body, the International Court of Justice, recently concluded that countries have legal obligations to curb their emissions. Some courts, domestically and globally, are also gravitating toward the enforcement and justiciability of human rights, particularly in climate-related cases and the right to a healthy environment.
These could provide new precedents that transform how these rights are understood and enforced in the future.
Without concrete resources, targets and accountability mechanisms to ensure people have dignified access to food, housing and social security, these rights will remain largely hollow.
The “climate of the era” has changed. It’s time for politicians to actively work to fulfill social and economic rights and for the courts to hold them accountable when they fail to do so.
Without substantive rights — ones backed by action — poverty will continue to rise and people will be denied justice.”