ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates South Africa record on economic rights, specifically right related to development, extreme poverty, good governance and corruption, foreign debt, and the regulation of transnational corporations. South Africa strongly supports resolutions on economic rights, but such support does not automatically translate into a commitment to economic rights. Voting for economic rights resolutions without demanding that states govern well are demands for global redistribution and reform favourable to the Global South, not a defence of economic human rights. Viewed in this way, South Africa’s commitment on economic rights is mixed and often less than meets the eye. South Africa has been vocal that good governance is necessary, but has also supported positions and resolutions that starkly reduce the responsibility of the state for the economic wellbeing of its citizens.
