Strengthening ESC rights

We work for strong and effective economic, social, and cultural rights legal frameworks and accountability mechanisms, that can respond to contemporary economic, social and cultural rights injustices. We support national and local rights advocates who leverage the human rights system to realise social, economic and climate justice.

During 2019-2020, we continued to work with partners to ensure that the human rights framework and institutions are equipped to address contemporary ESC rights struggles and informed by the perspectives of ESC rights defenders. We strived to ensure that the human rights monitoring and accountability bodies (HRBs) are strong, effective, credible and sufficiently resourced to discharge their important mandates. We also pressed for expanded safe and accessible spaces for ESC rights defenders to engage with these mechanisms, particularly in the context of the measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic which threaten the active engagement of civil society in the work of the international human rights system.

Updating human rights norms: UN Human Rights Committee strengthens the right to life

In 2019, GI-ESCR saw its efforts advocating for the recognition of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the right to life rewarded, with the adoption by the UN Human Rights Committee of a new General Comment (No. 36) on the right to life (article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR]), which embraces a more fulsome understanding of the right to life and insists on the entitlement of individuals to enjoy a “life with dignity”. In a strong endorsement of the indivisibility of all rights, it acknowledges the  implications for the right to life of economic and social deprivation and of environmental degradation, climate change and sustainable development. These represent significant developments in human rights jurisprudence and an expansion of opportunities for access to justice for millions of people living in poverty, given the special, non-derogable, status of the right to life and the fact that a significant number of States have enshrined the right to life in their constitutions and national laws. The expanded notion of the right to life has already proved significant in litigation and advocacy work at the national and international levels, such as the children’s climate case before the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in submissions in national climate change litigation in Ireland, and in the ‘climate refugee’ case of the Human Rights Committee against New Zealand.

Geneva updates: the only ESC rights focused update on the international human rights system

As part of our commitment to demystifying ESC rights and equipping human rights defenders to leverage the human rights system, we disseminate regular updates about the ESC rights work of the UN Human Rights bodies.

Over 2019-2020, we published 12 updates on the ESC rights developments of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including analysis of trends and opportunities for engagement and jurisprudential developments. These are the only ESC rights focused publications on the international human rights system and an essential source of information for national ESC rights advocates wishing to engage at the international level.

CESCR Yearbook: a unique publication showcasing the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

GI-ESCR continued to publish the Annual Yearbook of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in 2019 and 2020. This publication seeks to enhance the visibility and accessibility of the Committee’s work for national organizations which do not have the capacity to follow closely the ESC rights protection work of this key monitoring body. The Yearbook captures the full range of the Committee’s activities throughout the year. Since it was first published in 2017, it has come to serve as an important tool for civil society, human rights practitioners, academics and States.

For the 2019 edition, released in 2020, we re-designed the publication, with yet more infographics, statistics and analysis. Widely disseminated, it received very positive feedback and outreach significantly increased.

“For those who are interested in the Committee, the GI-ESCR's yearbook is extremely valuable.”

– Philip Alston, former UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

Opening spaces for civil society engagement and ESC rights advocacy

We advocated for and co-hosted the first annual civil society meeting with the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), held in March 2020. The CESCR thanked us for our leading role in organising the important interaction with civil society and committed to creating a space for regular annual meetings with NGOs to exchange on the work of the Committee and emerging ESC rights issues.

In September 2020, GI-ESCR arranged for civil society colleagues to brief the Committee during its first on-line session during the COVID-19 pandemic. We facilitated presentations to the Committee by colleagues from ESCR-Net, the Asian Indigenous Peoples’ Pact and the Abahlali baseMjondolo Movement (South Africa), on the ESC rights challenges of communities  during the pandemic.

‘I can’t emphasize how much I appreciate having GI-ESCR as our “Geneva mission”!’

- Eric Tars, Legal Director, National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.

Strengthening the human rights treaty bodies

During the period 2019-2020, GI-ESCR actively engaged in the state-led "Treaty Body Strengthening Process". As part of the NGO Network on UN human rights treaty bodies (TB-Net), we pushed for civil society-friendly reforms to strengthen these crucial independent human rights monitoring and accountability mechanisms and for States to adequately fund the system and we resisted the efforts of states who sought to undermine the effectiveness of these bodies in order to avoid human rights scrutiny. Our advocacy efforts were rewarded when many of our proposals were reflected in the recommendations for action to the UN General Assembly in September 2020.

When the COVID-19 travel restrictions and confinement measures severely restricted the work of the human rights monitoring bodies, together with TB-Net, we monitored and made recommendations on the transition to online work to ensure neither civil society space, nor quality of human rights monitoring were compromised. Furthermore, we rallied over 500 civil society organisations to support our call to the HRTBs to lift their suspension of the reviews of states, continue their important work online and ensure the meaningful engagement of civil society.

The international human rights system is made up of the human rights treaty bodies, the Human Rights Council and its subsidiary bodies and mechanisms including the Special Procedures mechanisms and the Universal Periodic Review.  The human rights treaty bodies (HRTBs), such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), are committees of independent experts that monitor implementation of the core international human rights treaties. Currently, there are nine human rights international treaties, and one optional protocol, from which 10 treaty bodies have been established. The Human Rights Council is the inter-governmental body within the United Nations system made up of 47 States responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.