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Global Initiative for ESCR - Annual Report 2013

Global Initiative for ESCR - Annual Report 2013

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Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - Annual Report 2013

 

 

Annual Report 2013 Message from the Co-Executive Directors

Twenty years ago, when the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action was adopted, the international community reaffirmed that “All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated. The international community must treat human rights globally in a fair and equal manner, on the same footing, and with the same emphasis.” Today, that vision is just as vital as it was then, as human rights advocates work to transform a world wherein close to one billion persons live without inadequate housing, wherein over one billion persons lack access to clean water, and wherein over 840 million persons are chronically hungry.

In 2013, at Vienna +20, we are proud to say that we and other representatives of the global community once again reiterated “the importance of affording the same standard of protection to economic, social and cultural rights and to civil and political rights.” In today’s world, the interconnection and interdependence of all human rights is readily apparent and acknowledged. Yet, so too are the gaping inequalities which continue to exist in our ever more technologically advanced, yet ever more ecologically fragile, world. To advance on the most pressing questions which plague humanity today, we believe a human rights lens is key.

In 2013, the Global Initiative continued to raise its voice on behalf of ESC rights, and we have sought to work in close collaboration with our civil society partners, grassroots advocates and others throughout the world who are on the front lines of human rights advocacy within their communities. We are happy to have this opportunity to make a valuable contribution together with them, and are proud to say that we have achieved significant outcomes from our work – outcomes we see laying the foundation for transformative impact on the ground.   In 2013, these outcomes were realized across all of our strategic priority areas – namely strategic litigation and legal advocacy; advancing women’s and ESC rights; and human rights and development.

Our work in strategic litigation, for example, has significantly strengthened international jurisprudence related to extra-territorial human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and also led to the first ever complaint filed before the Human Rights Committee dealing with extra-territorial obligations. Extra-territorial obligations are those obligations a State has to respect, protect and fulfill human rights outside of its own boarders.

These achievements continue to advance the scope of ESC rights protection at the international level by expanding human rights accountability mechanisms to examine extra-territorial human rights violations. These results are part of our continued efforts to ensure that those that violate certain aspects of social rights – including those related to housing and water – are held accountable by the UN Human Rights Committee as violations under the ICCPR.

These successes before the UN Human Rights Committee have ensured that the principle of indivisibility of rights has real meaning and has expanded avenues for social rights enforcement under the ICCPR, including for social rights violations by States or corporate actors abroad. A range of human rights advocates are now using this expanded space for human rights accountability and remedies in their own respective advocacy, and we are proud to have helped pave the way.

Our organization also continues to play a vital role in the advancement of women’s economic, social and cultural rights with a particular focus on women’s rights secure rights to land and other productive resources. We believe that these rights are fundamental to improving women’s lives and to ensuring gender equality. Here, we have sought to create and strengthen a coherent set of progressive norms and standards which can be used by advocates to orchestrate change related to women’s rights to housing, land and other productive resources at various levels.

In 2013, we hosted a Thematic Briefing for the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) on women’s rights to land and other productive resources and later were invited to give a keynote presentation during the CEDAW Committee’s Day of Discussion on the rights of rural women. We also facilitated the participation of our international and national partners to attend and participate during this important session. The background paper, keynote address and partners’ participation all further informed the draft General Recommendation on the rights of rural women which will be adopted by the CEDAW Committee.

The Global Initiative also worked closely with partners to lead a campaign that successfully resulted in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights adopting a landmark resolution on women’s rights to land and other productive resources. That resolution – the first of its kind – urged African States to fully comply with their obligations and commitments to ensure, protect and promote women’s right to land and property. This resolution now lays the foundation for continued work towards a General Comment to Maputo Protocol on these rights.

In the area of human rights and development, we have continued to advocate for a post-2015 development paradigm that fully incorporates the human rights framework, and ESC rights in particular. As we noted above, in 2013, the Global Initiative participated in the Vienna + 20 Conference and helped draft the CSO Declaration that resulted in the official Vienna + 20 Outcome Document calling for the entire body of human rights to be at the core of the post-2015 development framework. The Global Initiative also joined forces with other organizations to call for human rights as the core of the post-2015 development framework, including leading a consortium of groups that pushed for the recognition of rights related to access to, use of and control over land and other productive resources as a key component of the development agenda.

2013 also brought new organizational growth and increased capacity. A UN Liaison, based in Geneva, was welcomed to our team and has made a wonderful contribution to our work. Our on-the-ground presence in Geneva has allowed us to amplify not only our own voice, but also the voice of partners and advocates from around the world who would otherwise not have access to the UN’s human rights mechanisms. For example, the Global Initiative and its partners made a joint intervention at the Human Rights Council calling for a clear statement by the international community acknowledging the human rights obligations of international financial institutions and the extra-territorial obligations of their Member States. This intervention lays the foundation for future work at the Council aimed at leading to a full panel discussion of this issue at a forthcoming session of the Human Rights Council.

Finally, at the end of our second full year of operation, we are happy to report that we have ended the 2013 fiscal year on a sound financial footing which lays the foundation for organizational growth in 2014 and beyond. We are extremely grateful to our donors for the financial support we receive, and for their shared vision. We look forward to the Global Initiative’s continued work and engagement with our partners worldwide to ensure that all of the gains we have achieve so far continue to move us toward the transformative impact we seek.

By Mayra Gomez and Bret Thiele, Co-Executive Directors,Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Access a full copy of the Annual Report Annual Report 2013.

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.