Accessibility Tools

Web Accessibility plugin by DJ-Extensions.com

On the Ground

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

GI-ESCR will be at CSW68!

GI-ESCR will be at CSW68!

The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) will be attending the 68th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) to advocate for substantive gender equality and women’s equal rights.

The CSW is the principal global intergovernmental body dedicated exclusively to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. Each year, the CSW convenes a wide diversity of stakeholders that address emerging issues and new approaches to questions affecting the situation of women worldwide. As a result, by the end of the session, Member States annually adopt a document of agreed conclusions focused on a thematic priority, which establish key international standards for the advancement of gender equality.

For the CSW68, the priority theme is focused on addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing. Additionally, there will also be discussions on a review theme, which will be centred on social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure.

Accordingly, GI-ESCR will seek to contribute to the discussions at the CSW68 focusing on the following key interrelated topics:

· The just transition to sustainable societies for the eradication of poverty;

· The advancement of progressive and green tax policies to finance the realisation of women’s rights, and;

· Gender-transformative public services to address the root causes of gender inequality.

Taking these key issues forward, GI-ESCR is participating at CSW68 with the following initiatives:

 

Official Side-event: A Care-led Transition Towards a Sustainable Future: Pathways to Address Poverty and the Climate Crisis with a Gender Lens

GI-ESCR, alongside the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the International Labor Organisation and the Governments of Costa Rica, Chile, Colombia, and Finland will host a side event on ‘A Care-led Transition Towards a Sustainable Future: Pathways to Address Poverty and the Climate Crisis with a Gender Lens’ to be held on Monday, March 11 at 4:45 pm on the room CR-F.

This will be an opportunity for the high-level panel of leaders, policy-makers and experts on gender equality, care, economic, and environmental justice to discuss how can the transition to environmentally sustainable societies support care systems, including by fostering robust gender-responsive social security systems, combating women’s time poverty, increasing women’s climate-resilience and ensuring sufficient and adequate funding to the care economy.

This conversation will draw on recent research published by GI-ESCR on a A Care-led Transition Towards a Sustainable Future, which you read here.

Join us in this dynamic conversation that will explore how can a just transition lead to societies and economies centred in care!

Moderator:

· Magdalena Sepúlveda, Executive Director at GIESCR and former UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

Speakers:

· Cindy Quesada Hernández, Minister of the Status of Women, Costa Rica.

· Paula Narváez Ojeda, President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations.

· Laura Rissanen, State Secretary to the Minister of Social Security, Finland.

· Lucia Scuro, Social Affairs Officer, Division for Gender Affairs, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

· Laura Turquet, Deputy Chief of Research and Data, UN Women.

· Chidi King, Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Branch Chief, International Labour Organization.

· Wedgan Hussein, Bibliotheca Alexandrina Solidarity Staff Union, Africa and Arab countries WOC vicechair.

 

Parallel-event at the NGO CSW Forum: Rebuilding the Social Organisation of Care: a key to dismantling womxn's poverty

GI-ESCR jointly with key partners, including Public Services International (PSI), Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN), ActionAid, OXFAM, Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), Global Alliance for Tax Justice (GATJN), Tax Justice Network (TJN), Womankind, African Women's Development and Communications Network (FEMNET), International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF), and ESCR-Net will co-host a parallel event at the NGO CSW68 Forum on March 11, 2024, 2:30 pm at Tillman Chapel, 1st Floor CCUN.

The event will touch upon the unjust social organisation of care in societies built on the coloniality of power and the intersectionality of women's labour extraction. It will furthermore share evidence of current trends towards the commodification, monetisation, financialization and privatisation of care and the impact of the climate emergency in care- givers and care-receivers.

This event will be held at the civil society gathering parallel to the CSW68 and held outside of the UN headquarters known as the NGO CSW68 Forum. Join us in this event that will convene feminist movements, women’s rights organisations, and trade unions to envision the transformation of care systems!

 

Written Statement on Gender- Transformative Public Services

As a contribution to the general debate at CSW68, the GI-ESCR submitted a written statement emphasising the crucial role of public services in addressing the root causes of gender inequality. It highlights that the privatisation and commercialization of public services such as education, health, water and sanitation have a disproportionate impact on women and girls in all their diversity and result in increased economic barriers that violate their fundamental human rights.

Against this backdrop, the declaration puts forward policy proposals that emphasise the need for gender-transformative public services. For example, GI-ESCR points out that progressive fiscal polices should be implemented to restore the balance of power, distribute resources and create opportunities for people of different genders by addressing the underlying factors that contribute to gender inequality.

Read the full statement here!

 

Agreed Conclusions on the thematic priority

GI-ESCR will join partners in following the negotiations of the Agreed Conclusions that will establish new international standards for the achievement of gender equality on the thematic priority.

Together with other partner organisations, we will work to ensure that the principles of progressive and green tax policies are reflected in the agreed conclusions to ensure that they reflect the need for corporations and the super-rich to contribute their fair share to public revenue. The mobilisation of resources through tax justice is indispensable to invest in the realisation of women’s rights.

Related Articles

Contribution to the Women and Gender Constituency Submission on the Operationalisation of the Belém Antalya Mechanism (BAM)

Contribution to the Women and Gender Constituency Submission on the Operationalisation of the Belém Antalya Mechanism (BAM)

Macarena Cano Muñoz
COP30: Gaps, Gains and the Road Ahead 

COP30: Gaps, Gains and the Road Ahead 

Martín Pintus
We Join Civil Society in Calling on COP30 to Put Care at the Centre of Climate Action

We Join Civil Society in Calling on COP30 to Put Care at the Centre of Climate Action

Martín Pintus

SITEMAP

TAKE ACTION

NEWSLETTER

Don´t miss any updates!
SUBSCRIBE
Image

Social Media:

Log in

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.