Abstract

This article contributes to the human rights discourse on the protection of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR) under international human rights law (IHRL). In a developing State’s context, such as in the case of Nigeria, lack of resource may be cited as an excuse for lack of meaningful protection of ESCR. However, this article postulates the view that some core ESCR may be realised and guaranteed not just by viewing them as obligations for States to expend financial resources to facilitate their protection, but also, and even more importantly, by requiring States to review the root causes of their violations, some of which are merely socio-cultural in nature. The socio-cultural causes of the violations of ESCR may not require utilisation of financial resources. To demonstrate that point, the article examines the issue of how States can reduce ESCR violations through dispossession and dis-entitlement to property under the inheritance legal regime, especially in developing States such as Nigeria.