ABSTRACT
Some have suggested that the West has struggled to make progress in this area and go so far as to state that any perceived realisation of ESC rights is a ‘Western myth’.19 With the emergence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a means of advancing (or seeming to advance) human rights globally there is a feeling, amongst some scholars and activists, that progress to secure rights is being made20 but some recent literature argues that in fact global inequality is increasing at an alarming rate.21 While disadvantaged communities in some countries may look superficially better off (perhaps because they own a television, a smart phone, or a pair of Nike trainers22) when their wealth is compared to the global wealth distribution they are, in fact, in a worse place now than they would have been 10 or 20 (or more) years ago.23
