The rights to social security and social assistance in the European Social Charter: Towards a positive content…but what sort of content?

Abstract

The rights to social security and social assistance are protected by the European Social Charter and its quasi-judicial body, the European Committee of Social Rights. Less is known about the precise content of these rights. Following a decision, published on 15 February 2023, on a collective complaint lodged by the Finnish Society of Social Rights, an NGO, this paper proposes to critically question the positive content given by the Committee to these rights, when it attaches – and even assimilates – certain legal requirements to one specific social indicator, the poverty threshold, defined restrictively.