Chile's constitutional moment began as a popular demand in late 2019. This collection seizes the opportunity of this unique moment to unpack the context, difficulties, opportunities, and merits to enhance the status of environmental and social rights (health, housing, education and social security) in a country's constitution.
Learning from Chilean and international experiences from the Global South and North, and drawing on the analysis of both academics and practitioners, the book provides rigorous answers to the fundamental questions raised by the construction of a new constitutional bill of rights that embraces climate and social justice. With an international and comparative perspective, chapters look at issues such as political economy, the judicial enforceability of social rights, implications of the privatisation of public services, and the importance of active participation of most vulnerable groups in a constitutional drafting process.
Ahead of the referendum on a new constitution for Chile in the second half of 2022, this collection is timely and relevant and will have direct impact on how best to legislate effectively for social rights in Chile and beyond.

1. Introduction: Social Rights and the Constitutional Moment
Koldo Casla, Magdalena Sepúlveda, Vicente Silva and Valentina Contreras
2. Yesterday's Accomplices, Beneficiaries of Today: The Knots of Inequality Tied by the Dictatorship
Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky, Karinna Fernández and Sebastián Smart
3. An Open Constitution to Reverse Chile's Neoliberal Trajectory
Francisca Moya and Constanza Salgado
4. Advancing Equal Rights in Constitutions: Insights from 193 Countries
Aleta Sprague, Pam Stek, Amy Raub and Jody Heymann
5. Socio-Economic Rights in South Africa's Constitution: Aspirations, Achievements, Disappointments and Lessons
Sandra Liebenberg
6. Publicity and the Rule of Law: Access to Public Information in the Political Constitution of Colombia
Vivian Newman
7. The Path of the Inter-American Court Towards Direct Justiciability of Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights: Impact on Domestic Legal Systems
Julieta Rossi
8. Constitutional Provisions on Disability Rights: National Approaches and International Context
Gonzalo Moreno, Michael Ashley Stein and Jody Heymann
9. Persons with Disabilities in the Chilean Constitution-Making Process
Pablo Marshall, Viviana Ponce de León and Eduardo Marchant
10. The Right to Education in Chile: Evolution, Critical Issues and Perspectives of Change
Alfonso Henriquez R.
11. Integrating the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education into the Constitution: Keys for the Chilean Process
Valentina Contreras, Vicente Silva and Delphine Dorsi
12. Taking the Right to Adequate Housing Seriously in Chile's Next Constitution: Building from Scratch
Koldo Casla and Verónica Valenzuela
13. Health Rights in the New Chilean Constitution
Alejandra Zúñiga-Fajuri
14. The Right to Social Security in Chile's Constitution: Considerations and Opportunities
Alexandra Barrantes
15. Environmental Issues in a New Constitution
Verónica Delgado and Dominique Hervé

Koldo Casla is a Lecturer at the School of Law and a member of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex, UK.
Magdalena Sepúlveda is the Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Mexico.
Vicente Silva and Valentina Contreras are members of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Chile.