 Is economic inequality a violation of human rights?Gillian MacNaughton Chapter 4 in Research Handbook on Human Rights and Poverty, 2026, pp 57-73 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Over the past decade, scholars, activists, and policymakers have been alarmed by extreme and growing economic inequalities. Research shows that these inequalities adversely impact myriad human rights, including the rights to health, personal security, nondiscrimination, and political participation. While recognizing that greater economic equality is instrumentally important to reducing poverty and realizing human rights, this chapter asks whether there is a human right to economic equality per se? In response, the chapter examines the International Bill of Human Rights. Drawing on rules for interpretation of international law, as well as US constitutional law – the source of the right to equal protection – the chapter concludes that the right to equal protection in international human rights law must encompass not just rights to civil and political equality, but also rights to economic and social equality. It then presents an initial research agenda to discover a human rights approach to economic inequalities. Keywords: Equal protection; Inequality; Economic and social rights; Wealth; Income (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:24133_4 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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