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On the Ground

Explore our work with partners, globally and locally, to tackle social and economic injustice using a human rights lens.

GI-ESCR’s participation at COP28

GI-ESCR’s participation at COP28

For the last three years, GI-ESCR has participated in the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP) believing it is a key advocacy space to deliver on its mandate.

The 28th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP28) was held from 30 November to 12 December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and we were there. More than 60,000 delegates from Member states, civil society organisations, trade unions, Indigenous Peoples, industry, and international organisations, gathered in Dubai with the mission of phassing-out from fossil fuels and transition to a sustainable economy centred on protecting the people and the planet.

GI-ESCR gathered with States’ delegations, civil society organisations, UN representatives, and other stakeholders to contribute to the discussions on a right-based tax policies and a gender-just transition.

Please find below some selected news from GI-ESCR’s participation.

New report: A Green Fiscal Pact for Latin America and the Caribbean

Amid little discussion on alternative funding solutions based on taxes in the context of climate negotiations, GI-ESCR, DeJusticia, Nuestra América Verde, FIMA, GFLAC, and AIDA released a new policy brief outlining innovative proposals for green and progressive taxation to finance the just transition in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The policy paper titled "Green and Progressive Taxes for the Socio-Ecological Transition: Perspectives from Latin America and the Caribbean" was launched during the first week of negotiations at COP28, at the Climate Justice HUB (Blue Zone).

The policy brief makes the case for wealthy nations and individuals who have disproportionately contributed to climate change to pay their fair share through new forms of taxation. It argues that the funds raised can help pay for the mass shift away from fossil fuels and other measures needed to adapt to intensifying climate impacts across LAC countries. The aim of these efforts is to spur discussion and action around fiscal reform for climate justice based on human rights and the principles of equity, common but differentiated responsibilities,

and ecological sustainability. Alongside partners, GI-ESCR urges LAC governments to explore these recommendations in climate conferences and negotiations, while also pushing for an overhaul of global tax rules that facilitate corporate tax abuse and restrict nations more affected by the crisis to move towards a just transition.

Meeting with Colombia's Minister of Environment

GIESCR and partners had a strategic follow-up meeting with Colombia's Minister of Environment, Susana Muhamad, and her negotiating team. The discussion focused on key issues as climate finance, the global stocktake, and a gender-just transition. Specific details were provided on Colombia's requests for increased climate financing from developed countries to support sustainability projects and transitioning to clean energy. There was also dialogue around tracking progress from upcoming climate commitments and setting more ambitious goals for emissions reductions that promote environmental and fiscal justice.

Independent Global Stocktake (IGST)

As members of the Independent Global Stocktake (IGST), GI-ESCR met with other regional hubs to discuss progress on negotiations and critical points to include in the publication of the first Global Stocktake at COP28. The discussions centred on the need to increase climate ambition, strengthen regional cooperation, and ensure the Global Stocktake serves as an instrument for civil society to demand greater accountability from states and inform the new round of NDCs. See our joint statement HERE.

Strategic meeting with ESCR Net

As part of the global ESCR Network, GIESCR engaged in in-depth strategic meetings to strengthen a human rights-based approach in climate negotiations. Key discussion points included guaranteeing that increased climate financing plans have proper oversight, transparency, and accessibility mechanisms so resources directly support adaptation and mitigation strategies in developing countries bearing the greatest climate threats. There is a need for more robust reporting, tracking, and accountability systems. Also, members highlighted how loss and damage funding should adhere to human rights principles around timely, adequate, and needs-based assistance. As climate impacts intensify, loss

and damage support must incorporate affected populations into decision-making and distribute aid efficiently without discrimination.

Overall the Network used its presence and advocacy at COP28 to press parties on integrating human rights into all climate commitments and plans while centring support for vulnerable groups.

GFLAC joint statement

GIESCR along with over 81 civil society organisations globally issued a joint statement on climate finance through the Group of Climate Finance for Latin America and the Caribbean. The statement called for transforming how climate finance is delivered, accessed, reported, and governed to serve developing country needs. Please read the joint statement HERE.

UN experts held press conference at COP calling for fiscal justice in climate negotiations

Isabelle Durant, Chair of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, José Francisco Calí Tzay, Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Attiya Waris, Independent Expert on foreign debt, other international financial obligations and human rights, and David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment held a joint conference. The conference by the four UN experts aimed to highlight priorities and opportunities for human rights-based climate action at COP28. The experts were part of the largest-ever delegation of UN independent experts on human rights participating at the UN climate summit.

Professor Attiya Waris emphasised the connection between fiscal policy and climate justice. "There is no climate justice without fiscal justice," she declared at the press conference. As UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and international finance, Professor Waris provided crucial insights on how issues of finance, taxation, illicit flows of money, and human rights all intersect with efforts to address climate change. In particular, she noted the lack of discussion around the different types and mechanisms of financing, varying methods of taxation, and problems related to illegal movement of funds and wealth taxes.

GIESCR also discussed with the UN expert on GI’s new report “A Green Fiscal Pact for Latin America and the Caribbean” and on how LAC countries can adopt bold fiscal measures to finance and tackle the climate emergency.

Ways forward towards 2024

While progress was made at COP28, much work remains ahead in 2024 and beyond. Key next steps for GIESCR and partners will be continuing advocacy work with governments to implement stronger emissions reductions commitments, improve transparency on meeting climate financing pledges, and integrate human rights and environmental justice obligations into policymaking. GIESCR also aims to utilise accountability tools like the Global Stocktake to demand bolder, rights-based climate action from states that aligns with 1.5°C pathways. This involves collaborating with UN experts to advance principled positions in climate negotiations and processes, as well as expanding civil society participation by enhancing frontline community voices in decision-making forums. Overall, GIESCR seeks to build momentum with strategic partners on holding countries and corporations responsible for ambitious, socially-just climate commitments by employing evidence-based advocacy and leveraging reporting mechanisms. The goal is ensuring the most vulnerable populations and future generations are considered as countries plan and finance an equitable transition to climate resilience and net zero emissions. Forging ahead, there will be a continued push towards justice, participation, and accountability in the global climate fight.

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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.