This article reviews the international human rights standards relevant to protecting and promoting economic, social, and cultural rights in the United States, focusing particularly on those norms that would assist advocates of welfare and education rights. It discusses three ways in which these norms can be used in litigation before federal and state courts in the United States and argues that, in order to make more effective use of these standards, parties should raise the standards themselves, and not rely solely on amici curiae briefs or on courts' raising the standards sua sponte. This article also asserts that civil rights advocates can effectively advance their clients' rights by raising international human rights standards in legislative and administrative fora as well. Finally, the article suggests that the failure of the United States to promote economic, social, and cultural rights (as exemplified by its refusal to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights) may violate principles of the Charter of the United Nations.