ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to set out the first part of the theoretical framework for this study by exploring some of the debates surrounding this particular subset of 'human rights' which demonstrate how social rights have emerged as a specific set of rights claims. It demonstrates that the status of social rights remains contested; it is precisely this contested nature that makes such rights worthy of analysis. According to the liberal social contract theory, such rights are dependent on the noninterference of the state in the lives and liberties of its citizens and are often classified as 'first-generation' civil and political rights. The liberal concept of citizenship emphasised individual rights, particularly relating to property, and advocated limiting the role of the state in its citizens' lives. By the mid-1960s social rights had become entrenched in Western Europe as part of a postwar social contract between nation-states and their citizens.
