New publication looks at social rights in Chile

Since July 2021, a new constitutional convention is working towards a new constitution, which the Chilean people will have the chance to vote on in 2022. In this constitutional moment, GI-ESCR has been working together with the Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex (UK), and the Universidad de Concepción (Chile) to provide evidence and analysis to inform the process of constitutional reform. This publication brought together fifty academics and practitioners, half of them Chilean and the other half international.

After the national launch of the 30-chapter book in Chile in September, on 20 October we launched the book for an international audience. The book has been published in Spanish, but an extended version of a selection of chapters will be published in English in 2022.

The book was presented by a panel integrated by Dr Magdalena Sepúlveda, the Executive Director of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. She was, from 2008 to 2014 she was the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

Professor Sandra Liebenberg is H F Oppenheimer Chair in Human Rights Law at the Law Faculty, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She was formerly Chair of the Technical Committee advising the Constitutional Assembly on the Bill of Rights in South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution. She is also a former Member and Vice-Chair of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2016-20).

Pedro Cisterna Gaete Lawyer. PhD in Law Candidate at the University of Edinburgh. Research Assistant on Climate Change and the Environment at University of Concepción, Chile.

The event was chaired by Dr Koldo Casla, a Lecturer at the School of Law and the Director of the Human Rights Centre Clinic of the University of Essex. He is one of the co-editors of the book.