The Netherlands Gradually Changing Views on International Economic and Social Rights Protection

This article contests the argument that Daniel J. Whelan and Jack Donnelly put forth in the November 2007 issue of the Human Rights Quarterly, thus joining the debate about the truth or myth of Western opposition to economic and social rights. Their statement that Western states considered these rights as equal to civil and political rights in importance is challenged through analysis of the Netherlands policies and attitudes towards the economic and social rights. Their view that the West has strongly and consistently supported economic and social rights is displaced by a picture of a gradual process in which economic and social rights became increasingly accepted as a full-fledged category of human rights.