Our Eviction Court Clients Need This Treaty: The U.S. Must Finally Ratify The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights

Abstract

Anyone enduring poverty in the U.S. or working with persons enduring poverty–as we do in our law school eviction clinic–is aware that housing, healthcare, food, and sufficient income are essential to human survival and dignity. Yet those basic necessities are not rights guaranteed under U.S. law. Instead, discretionary, underfunded efforts to address economic needs have led to widespread U.S. poverty and a toxic one-step-forward/one-step-backward policy dance, characterized by safety net programs expanding only to be cut when political winds shift.

The U.S. should join nearly every other nation in the world by ratifying the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which establishes much-needed enforceable economic rights.

Ratification of the ICESCR would fulfill the will of the American people, who overwhelmingly support Social Security, public education, and other universal economic support programs, along with the establishment of housing, healthcare, and food as human rights. Those views are consistent with religious traditions advocating for economic justice and a long U.S. history of calling for and instituting economic rights. That history dates from the Declaration of Independence to the New Deal to Franklin Roosevelt’s vision for a Second Bill of Rights, which inspired the global human rights framework that includes the ICESCR.

Recommended Citation

Quigley, Fran (2026) "Our Eviction Court Clients Need This Treaty: The U.S. Must Finally Ratify The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights," Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review: Vol. 27: Iss. 2, Article 4.
Available at: https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/benefits/vol27/iss2/4