BUILDING A FIELD OF ECONOMICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ), in partnership with SECTION27 and the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), conducted a project to bridge the gap between economics and human rights in South Africa. The report identifies systemic barriers, such as the lack of a shared language and the tendency of mainstream economics to ignore social objectives, while highlighting the potential for human rights to provide a normative framework for challenging economic orthodoxies. Key activities included publishing a peer-reviewed article on Human Rights Impact Assessments, producing advocacy factsheets based on UN recommendations, and hosting a multi-stakeholder convening. The findings suggest that moving beyond budget-focused advocacy toward systemic economic policy analysis and progressive jurisprudence can empower social movements and hold governments accountable for socio-economic rights.

• Mainstream economics often lacks a normative base, treating the field as a neutral science and focusing on individual utility and self-regulating markets, which leads to policy recommendations that favor elites and businesses.
• Human rights practitioners often neglect the structural economic inequalities and redistribution issues that are prerequisites for the effective realization of rights, frequently limiting their economic focus to government budget allocations.
• In South Africa, there is a significant disjuncture between the constitutional guarantee of socio-economic rights and actual economic policy, with public spending cuts for debt stabilization causing retrogression in health and education rights.
• A primary barrier to interdisciplinary engagement is the absence of a shared language, as both fields rely on jargon that can create 'disciplinary arrogance' and exclude those outside the respective specialties.
• The project's academic contribution argued that neoclassical economic tools contain inherent biases that must be understood to meaningfully assess the human rights impacts of economic policy choices.
• Advocacy efforts using factsheets based on the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights' observations helped make human rights more tangible and influenced other civil society groups, such as the Black Sash and the Budget Justice Coalition.
• Public interest litigation in South Africa is often limited by a narrow scope of legal challenges and a perceived judicial reluctance to intervene in 'polycentric' policy matters, which can result in wins that do not effect systemic change.
• Integrating human rights into economic advocacy can empower social movements by providing a moral and legal language to challenge 'common sense' economic assumptions, such as the idea that higher wages necessarily increase unemployment.
• The climate crisis is forcing a shift in economic policy, as central bankers are increasingly required to confront social issues and rights-based impacts due to the multi-dimensional nature of climate breakdown.

APA

Osborne, C. (n.d.). BUILDING A FIELD OF ECONOMICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA. Institute for Economic Justice. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Building-a-field-of-Economics-and-Human-Rights-final.pdf

Chicago

Osborne, Carilee. BUILDING A FIELD OF ECONOMICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA. Institute for Economic Justice, n.d. https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Building-a-field-of-Economics-and-Human-Rights-final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Osborne |first1=Carilee |title=BUILDING A FIELD OF ECONOMICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA |publisher=Institute for Economic Justice |url=https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Building-a-field-of-Economics-and-Human-Rights-final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{osbornendbuilding, author = {Osborne, Carilee}, title = {{BUILDING A FIELD OF ECONOMICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: LESSONS FROM SOUTH AFRICA}}, institution = {Institute for Economic Justice}, url = {https://iej.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Building-a-field-of-Economics-and-Human-Rights-final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }