This year, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will collaborate with the Human Rights Clinic of Essex University for a module-based research project exploring the interconnections between energy transition, health, and gender. The university will select students enrolled in its human rights courses for 2023-2024 to work on this urgent topic together with GI-ESCR.  

Energy poverty has several impacts on the economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, including the right to health of girls and women. The project will review and map the existing interpretation of relevant human rights norms and standards to understand how a feminist energy transition, including the realisation of the right to health, would look like. Importantly, the document will include a review of relevant international human rights treaties, Human Rights Treaty Bodies statements, and reports of Special Procedures. In addition to desk research, the students may wish to undertake interviews with human rights experts to better inform their analysis. The following questions will be addressed:  

• What is the current state of development of international human rights standards in relation to the energy transition?  
• What patterns and trends can be identified in how the international human rights framework addresses the interlinkages between the transition to renewable energy, gender, and the right to health?  
• What are the potential gaps and opportunities in human rights in legal protection on these key issues? 

This research will help inform a feminist transition towards renewable energy, with a focus on the right to health.   

At GI-ESCR, this effort is part of a broader commitment to investigate the interconnections between the environmental rights and the right to health, including the right to a healthy environment.  

Read the full project description here.