In groundbreaking ruling, the Israeli Supreme Court establishes that there is no distinction between social and civil rights in terms of the state’s obligation to realize the rights and allocate budgets to this end
The outgoing President of Israel’s Supreme Court, Dorit Beinisch, commented in the summer that the social protest would also be manifested in the Supreme Court. Today (28 February 2012), on her last day in her position, she kept her word: for the first time, the Supreme Court has established that there is no distinction between social rights and civil rights in terms of the state’s obligation to realize the rights and to allocate budgets to this end. The inclusion of these rights alongside classic political and civil rights is today accepted around the world and in the human rights community in Israel. However, until now, there has been no clear ruling by the Supreme Court on this matter. The new ruling is a significant step forward in terms of the protection of social rights. It will be interesting to see how the Treasury responds, and how this ruling impacts on future rulings by the Court on social matters.
To read more about the case and outgoing Supreme Court President Dorit’ Beinisch’s statements, click here
