The volume includes contributions from different continents, on a range of different services, and engages with the realities of different regulatory settings. After an introduction that sets out the most important challenges for universal access to services – including sufficient resources mobilisation, private actor involvement and regulation, or the need for improved checks and balances – the book goes on to discuss current issues in services provision and socio-economic rights, as well as explores the place and role of private business actors in the provision of services. In particular, it assesses how the responsibility and accountability of such actors for human rights can be improved . The final part of the book narrows in on the under-explored human rights concepts of ‘participation’ and ‘accountability’, as essential prerequisites for better ‘checks and balances’. Overall, this volume presents a unique and powerful illustration of how socio-economic human rights law supports improved access to essential public services for all.
Marlies Hesselman is lecturer in Public International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, and concluding Ph.D. research on universal access to modern energy services.
Antenor Hallo de Wolf
is Assistant Professor of International Law and Human Rights Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and a former visiting fellow of the Human Rights Implementation Centre at the University of Bristol, UK.Brigit Toebes
is an Associate Professor and Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the Faculty of Law of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.