The world today appears to be at the brink of a potential system collapse; the planet is literally “burning”, “drowning” and “melting”, and societies are in deep distress. A daily spectacle of fires, melting glaciers, flash floods, food riots, interminable fuel queues, homelessness, gruelling poverty and capsized boats overloaded with migrants plays out before our very eyes. Oxfam and others do a competent job of updating us each year in their annual reports on the pandemic of galloping poverty and inequality. The recent global figures are beyond alarming, with the richest 10 per cent owning 76 per cent of the total wealth while the poorest half has only 2 per cent. And what's more, the Covid-19 pandemic delivered a bumper harvest to the top 1 per cent of the global rich who gained almost two-thirds of the newly generated wealth since 2020. From our perspective as human rights advocates, the gaping chasm between the international legal order and the reality on the ground seems increasingly unbridgeable. The right to self-determination is inalienable, entitlements to all human rights are universal, without discrimination, and states have the duty to protect, as well as to meet all their commitments under international law. And yet, we have instances where international lawyers and the international community tip-toe around critical issues as the complexities and indeterminacies of international law are used to legitimize the status quo. The system is surely tipping over the precipice.

The trajectory of this malaise is based on several years of neglect by governments to respect their human rights obligations, especially of those most left behind. The social contract enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 75 years ago, stands largely torn and tattered today. Covid-19 exposed the shocking consequences everywhere, of chronic underinvestment in social spending – in public health, social protection and other economic and social rights. As pointed out by the UN secretary general in the midst of the pandemic, “we are in an age of unprecedented inequality, and a new social contract with human rights at the core, is urgently required to reset the balance”.