Article 9 of the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights on the right to social security is the shortest article in the entire Covenant and for that reason alone highly abstract and vague. A comprehensive analysis of the article 9 is still lacking, not least because it is widely regarded as a Pandora's box better not to be opened.

Experience has shown that the quality of the state reporting procedure is greatly improved once the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights has adopted a General Comment. Thus, it seems very desirable to close this gap. For the reason, an International Expert Workshop on the Right to Social Security was held in April 2005 at the German Institute for Human Rights, whose purpose was to highlight specific issues of the right to social security which should be addressed by the Committee when drafting a General Comment on article 9. The results of this workshop are published in this volume providing an insight into the current challenges on social security as a human right.

The Right to Social Security Current Challenges in International Perspective.- The Human Right to Social Security: Some Challenges.- The Right to Social Security and Implications for Law, Policy and Practice.- Social Security Reforms and the Right to Social Security.- The Judicial Enforcement of Social Security Rights in South Africa.- Social Security International Standards and the Right to Social Security.- Evaluating the ILOs Approach to Standard-Setting and Monitoring in the Field of Social Security.- Social Security for Women Workers in the Informal Economy.- Exclusion of Vulnerable Groups from Equal Access to Social Security.- Social Security Systems and the Neo-Liberal Challenge.- Evaluating Reforms in Social Security Protection.- Summary of Discussion.