What do the public think about economic and social rights?

The background to the Report is the public policy debate about the introduction of a Bill of Rights or written constitution that would build on the Human Rights Act (HRA) (1998) and further strengthen human rights protection by codifying new, additional and / or strengthened rights including economic and social rights. In 2007, the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) published an agenda-setting Report on a Bill of Rights. The Report recommended that the rights to health, education, housing and an adequate standard of living be included in any future Bill of Rights. The recommendation was underpinned by the JCHR’s new “mid-way” model for the domestic incorporation of economic and social rights. The JCHR’s recommendations were further premised on the view that economic and social rights “touch the substance of people’s everyday lives” - helping to correct the “popular misconception that human rights are a charter for criminals and terrorists”. The inclusion of economic and social rights might, the JCHR speculated, be “popular” with the public - helping with legitimacy and buy-in.[...]