Economic, social and cultural rights and budget information: Procedural is normative

Abstract

Economic, social and cultural rights have been seen traditionally as programmatic and have had little development compared to other human rights. This has hampered the development of supervision techniques for State compliance with this type of rights. This article suggests that it is possible to conclude rights violation by analysing public budgets. Given that budgets determine State compliance possibilities with rights, the article supports the idea that budgetary contents transcends both political and programmatic spheres becoming part of the legal order. Using the Mexican experience as a model, the article proposes concrete measures for a human rights oriented budget management.