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La pandemia de COVID-19 y su impacto en los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales

Inequality is the Real Pandemic (ES)

Alejandra Ancheita

 

The current global crisis caused by COVID-19 has highlighted not only the weakness of the hegemonic global economic model, but also the dire need to rethink the defense of human rights from a transnational perspective. For more than 40 years, we have witnessed a setback in the protection and safeguard of human rights, particularly the collective rights of women, workers, and indigenous peoples. Worryingly, inequality has risen in almost all corners of the world, among countries (in the Global North and the Global South) as well as among different regions within countries, which in turn has specifically affected the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights.

Women, workers, and indigenous peoples are some of the most vulnerable groups facing the crisis caused by COVID-19. However, this vulnerability does not stem from this particular context, but rather from structural conditions of precarity and poverty that have worsened in the past decades hindering the enjoyment of their fundamental rights.

Violence against women is a global pandemic, which has exacerbated since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has reported a 60% increase in emergency phone calls and complaints related to intra-family violence in relation to April 2019, and foresees that up to 31 million more cases of gender violence will occur if lockdown measures stay in effect for six months more. In Mexico, the National Network of Women’s Shelters has seen a 60% increase in phone calls and shelter requests made by women since lockdown measures began in March 2020. The Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System reported a 20% increase in emergency phone calls related to gender-based violence, and per day 10 women were murdered in March 2020.

Workers, particularly those coming from countries in the Global South, their right to decent work, and other related rights have been eroded. Globally, corporations have taken advantage of outsourcing and temporary labor migration programs. These models try to obstruct or outrightly deny the employer-worker relationship and, therefore, the access of workers to labor human rights, such as earning a decent wage, having access to social security, and the possibility of collective bargaining and freedom of association, among others.

Regarding indigenous peoples, there has been a continuing effort to privatize their land and territory, particularly in places where their rights to land and property are recognized (collectively or individually as, for example, in Mexico). This situation allows extractive companies to avoid their corporate human rights due diligence , while they also do not fully protect labour rights and cause irreversible damage to the environment.

Unfortunately, women, workers, and indigenous peoples have not been able to appeal to the State for the protection of their rights. On the one hand, because States and their institutions are commonly captured by economic elites; and on the other, because we have seen the rise of authoritarian leaders with a clear agenda in which minorities do not seem to matter, consequence of the deterioration of the quality of our democratic systems linked, in part, to the rising and exacerbated inequalities. From Trumpism in the US, to Bolsonaro in Brazil, Modi in India, and Johnson in the UK, current political agendas favor the overexploitation of natural resources and workers’ labor power despite the science-based and consistent information that we have on climate change, and now, on the humanitarian crisis that will follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

In this context, are there still opportunities for the defense of human rights? If so, what is the role that we as human rights defenders can play? In the context of COVID-19, will the current international legal framework and the regional and universal human rights mechanisms be able to address future challenges? can international solidarity have a real impact on the ground for the defense of human rights? if not, what could be the new alternative paradigm?

Addressing the vulnerabilities faced by women, workers, and indigenous peoples will require a radical change in the economic model that will require a political movement unequivocally committed to human rights which, in the best-case scenario, will take decades to build. To this day, what we commonly see is a series of governmental measures seeking to benefit global economic elites through tax breaks to the detriment of the most vulnerable and affected groups.

In this scenario, there might be alternatives where the role of human rights defenders is crucial. The articulation of global social movements advocating for the realization of the right to a clean and healthy environment, the rights to land, food sovereignty, decent work and to social security, to access information, and high-quality education without discrimination, create opportunities that we need to consider . The current situation will also require alternative forms of coordination between organizations from the Global North and the Global South: a genuine collaboration addressing the needs of the collectives and organized communities.


This type of collaboration could not only help identify the structural failures of States in the protection of human rights but also set forth effective corporate accountability measures through comprehensive transnational defense strategies. What we seek is to reduce the power imbalance between economic elites and the most vulnerable and impoverished sectors of society, making visible in the international public agenda what these groups have relentlessly stated: “the real pandemic is inequality”.

Alejandra Ancheita is the Founder and Executive Director of the Project on Economic, Social, and Cutlural Rights (ProDESC). Since 2005, she leads efforts aimed at the protection of economic, social and cultural rights with unprecedented results in the establishment of accountability mechanisms for transnational corporations. Due to the impact of Alejandra's work, she received the Martin Ennals Award in 2014 from the International Community of Human Rights, and in 2015, the Mexican Senate recognized Alejandra's role as a human rights defender for her relentless work in defense of workers, migrants, and indigenous communities. In 2019, she received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Université Paris-Nanterre due to her outstanding career in the defense of human rights. Alejandra holds a Law degree from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, and a LLM in International Law and Justice from Fordham University in New York, USA.

Twitter: @aancheita

 

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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.