GI-ESCR is excited to today launch its webpage on the subject of inequality and human rights.

Described as “the defining issue of our times”, economic inequality is a central concern for those working on human rights, and is an underlying theme across all of GI-ESCR’s programmes of work. In addition, GI-ESCR has developed a specific area of work to better understand and articulate the relationship between economic inequality and human rights.

In 2018 and 2019, GI-ESCR worked in partnership with a team of students at the Sciences Po Law School Clinic to explore if, and how, United Nations human rights treaty bodies address the issue of economic inequality. The key findings of this research are presented and discussed in the chapter “What the UN Human Rights Bodies Tell Us About Economic Inequalities and Human Rights: An Empirical Analysis of 20 Years of Practice”, co-authored by GI-ESCR’s Director of Law and Policy, Sylvain Aubry, within the book “Human Rights and Economic Inequalities” edited by Gillian MacNaughton, Diane F. Frey and Catherine Porter. This book also features a chapter authored by GI-ESCR’s Latin America Programme Officer, Vicente Silva, titled “The Potential Impact of the Right to Housing to Address Vertical Inequalities”.

To find out more, join us today, 8 December, at 5pm GMT for the webinar “Book launch: Are economic inequalities compatible with human rights?” where Sylvain Aubry will be presenting the chapter he co-authored. You can join the webinar here.

More information about GI-ESCR's work in this area, including a database of concluding observations by UN human rights treaty bodies addressing the issue of economic inequality, can be found on GI-ESCR's webpage on inequality and human rights.