Economic, social and cultural rights should be given more attention by those promoting human rights, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Mrs Mary Robinson told a conference organised by the Conference of Religious of Ireland that civil and political rights had received more attention, even in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
"I think it is time to redress the balance and devote more attention to economic, social and cultural rights," she said.
"The debate is in some ways artificial since we have only to look at the world around us to know that it is not a case of choosing one set of rights over another - both need to be vigorously championed and defended."
She said the recent report of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights gave no grounds for complacency in Ireland. It found that the relevant UN Covenant had not been fully incorporated in domestic legislation, and was rarely, if ever. invoked before the courts.
It also found that Article 40.1 of the Constitution contained provisions which appeared to be inconsistent with UN principles of non-discrimination, and that poverty persisted among disadvantaged groups, especially the disabled, Travellers and children.
She stressed the absence of suitable places for young offenders. "This issue has been around for decades. When will it be resolved?" She added that we must face up to the reality of the cases of abuse in institutions run by religious orders if we are to forge a better society.
The Irish Human Rights Commission, set up under the Belfast Agreement, was, in the experience of her office, one of the best strategies for promoting tolerance. She said that it should have a mandate to investigate individual complaints and resolve them, where possible by conciliation.
Father Sean Healy, speaking for CORI at the conference, urged that economic, social and cultural rights should form part of the agenda of the new Human Rights Commission.
He also urged the social partners to ensure that a programme to advance these rights formed part of any national agreement which succeeded Partnership 2000.
The rights which should be taken up both by the Human Rights Commission and the social partners included the right to an adequate income to live life with dignity; the right to meaningful work; and the rights to appropriate accommodation, to basic healthcare, to relevant education and to cultural respect.
Ms Inez McCormack, incoming president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and a member of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, said economic growth had to be linked to democratic growth.
One of the real challenges was to ensure that social partnership established a benchmark on a whole range of economic and social issues, to enable the excluded to participate in decisions about them.
Dr Edmond Molloy, a management consultant specialising in large-scale organisational change, told the conference that the "quality of life dimension" was central to the success of both individual businesses and of whole societies.
Dozens of empirical studies showed businesses which were genuinely committed to respecting their employees consistently outperformed those who did not.
This was also true for society, he said. One example of this was the question of harmony among diverse cultures; he suggested this was one reason why investment and economic progress in Northern Ireland had lagged behind that in the Republic.
He also suggested Israel's economic success was related to its tide of well-educated immigrants. "What is our attitude to immigration? I read a few weeks ago that 80 per cent of asylum-seekers have third-level qualifications and yet we are turning them away when practically every company in the country cannot find the qualified people they need.
"Where are we now, seeking the last remaining sources of human talent to meet the ever-growing demands of industry? Is it not among women and poor people? What has this got to do with gender equality, participation in education and other quality-of-life indicators?"
Just as investment in education a generation ago is now bearing economic fruit, our social and cultural infrastructure now needed attention, and this should be supported by the business community, he said.