Social Sustainability
Subsistence Rights
Definition
Subsistence rights are the entitlements of every person to the material minimum needed for survival and a dignified life — rooted in the ICESCR rights to an adequate standard of living, food and water, and elaborated in the jurisprudence of treaty bodies. For Indigenous peoples and rural communities, they extend to continued access to the land, waters and resources on which subsistence livelihoods depend, as affirmed in UNDRIP and ILO Convention 169; development projects that destroy subsistence resources violate rights even where compensation for cash losses is offered.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Subsistence Rights” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
The concept structures Indigenous and community rights claims, resettlement policy (livelihood restoration standards), fisheries and hunting rights regimes, and climate displacement debates.
Why it matters
Subsistence rights defend the oldest economy on Earth — direct provision from land and water — against its erasure by the newest.