What Role for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Peace Building?

Peace building is a main goal on the international agenda, yet is unsuccessful. Since 1989 one quarter of armed conflicts are unresolved and half of modern conflicts return to war in five years. I argue the failure to sustain peace is a result of current liberal peace building paradigms. If peace is the process of achieving collective and individual freedom from structural violence, I argue foreign aid must use human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights (ESC). Using the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and precedents set by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural rights I analyze the human rights impact of the practices of the United States Agency for International Development and the United Nations Development Programme. The past two decades of aid to the OPT reflects liberal paradigms of aid for peace and the prioritization of civil and political rights. By showing that ESC rights are justiciable obligations that can be applied to the practice of peace building, I am expanding the notion of liberalism to include ESC rights frameworks, so that peace building can address (in)securities avoided by liberal peace practices.