BEYOND CIVIL LIBERTIES: NHRC AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC JUSTICE IN INDIA

The National Human Rights Commission of India is widely known for its work on custodial deaths and police excess. Its record on hunger, health and housing is far thinner, even though the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 expressly brings the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights within its mandate. This blog examines that gap between text and practice. It argues that the usual objection of non-justiciability no longer holds, since four decades of Article 21 jurisprudence have made livelihood, health and shelter enforceable. The Commission’s own work on bonded labour and silicosis shows that it can act in this field. The blog traces the silence instead to institutional design: a complaint-driven model, a remedy built around compensation and limited staff. It then turns to South Africa, whose Constitution requires its Human Rights Commission to monitor socio-economic rights every year. It draws lessons from both the promise and the shortcomings of that model. With the NHRC’s accreditation under review in November 2026, the blog argues that a standing socio-economic review would complete the Commission’s mandate without any need for amendment.