Geneva Updates
Our strategic presence in Geneva sets us apart as the sole NGO exclusively committed to economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights. This permits us to play a pivotal role in promoting and protecting these rights globally.
Human Rights Committee addresses housing, water, sanitation and access to land in Palestine and Israel
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) welcomes the Concluding Observations on Israel released by the Human Rights Committee today. Relying on the Parallel Report submitted by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Human Rights Committee condemned violations of rights related to housing, water, sanitation and access to land. The relevant Concluding Observations also relied on a complementary Parallel Report from Al Haq, particularly regarding access to natural resources and the right to self-determination. The GI-ESCR and Al Haq coordinated their advocacy before the Committee. The Concluding Observations reaffirmed extra-territorial obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as well as that violations of certain aspects of social rights amount to violations of rights under the ICCPR. It also took a new look at denial of access to land as violating the Covenant.
Bret Thiele, Co-Executive Director of the GI-ESCR, said that "While these Concluding Observations form part of our ongoing advocacy dealing with violations of rights to housing, water, sanitation, food and access to land in Palestine and Israel, this work also fits into our broader strategy of opening additional avenues for enforcement of social rights. By effectively using the principle of indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights, we hope that advocates now see the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as a tool to enforce certain aspects of social rights, particularly since the Individual Complaint procedure under the ICCPR is open to 115 countries." Thiele added that "We have already used the results of similar foundational work to successfully use the Individual Complaint mechanism to enforce the prohibition on forced eviction as well as to get water supply reestablished, and we hope that other civil society organizations consider this additional option for enforcement of social rights."
Regarding housing, the Committee again condemned punitive house demolitions as well as discriminatory forced evictions undertaken in the context of Israel's planning and zoning regime, finding that these practices violate Articles 7, 17 and 26 of the Covenant. The forced eviction and forced relocation of Bedouin communities in both the West Bank and the Negev region of Israel was also condemned, including for not taking into account these communities' traditional pastoral economy, social fabric, and rural way of life, which also rise to violations of Article 27. The Committee called for an immediate halt to forced evictions and house demolitions and effective remedies to victims of destruction of property, forced eviction and forcible transfer. It also called on Israel to ensure the right of participation of the Bedouin communities in any planning that affects them.
On denial of access to water and sanitation, the Committee expressed its concern about the restricted access of Bedouins living in unrecognized and recently-recognized villages in the Negev to basic services, including adequate housing, water and sanitation, healthcare, education and public transportation. It also condemned the blockade of Gaza, in particular its impact on access to food, health, electricity, water and sanitation can called on the immediate lifting of the blockade, as well as the denial of access to water by Palestinians in the West Bank. The Committee reaffirmed that denial of access to food, water and sanitation in these contexts rose to violations of Articles 6, 7 and 26 of the Covenant.
In a new development, the Committee also considered denial of access to land as rising to violations of the ICCPR, including Articles 1, 12 and 17. In doing so, it looked both at the Bedouin's right to ancestral land as well as confiscation of Palestinian land and denial of access to agricultural land by Palestinians in the West Bank including East Jerusalem. The Committee called on Israel to ensure and facilitate non-discriminatory access of Palestinians to land, natural resources, water and sanitation; to ensure that Palestinians have full access to their lands and livelihood; and to put an end to the practice of expropriation of land including for Israeli settlements and the Separation Wall. It also called for the withdrawal of all settlers from the West Bank including East Jerusalem.
The task now is to continue advocacy in Israel, Palestine, Geneva and elsewhere to ensure implementation of these Concluding Observations.
Transcript of Human Rights Committee questioning of Israel is available HERE.
Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Parallel Report is available HERE.
Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Parallel Report for the List of Issues is available HERE.
Human Rights Committee Concluding Observations are available HERE.
Al Haq Parallel Report is available HERE.
The UN asks Ghana to explain itself on privatisation in education
Press release, 23/10/2014
(Geneva, Accra) - In a list of issues released last week, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) formally asked the Ghanaian Government to explain itself on the growing privatisation in education in the country and the effect it has on the realisation of the right to education for all.
This is a victory for civil society organisations in Ghana that have been researching the detrimental impacts of the mushrooming of private schools. Sylvain Aubry, researcher at the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) reacted:
“‘Low-cost’ private schools are schools that claim to be affordable and serve poor people. However, research in several countries has shown that they are not affordable. In Ghana, most families have to make sacrifices to send their children to these schools, and in some cases would have to spend up to 40% of their income to send just one child to the school.”
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, the UN body made up of international experts responsible for monitoring implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As part of its review of the implementation of the Convention by Ghana, it has raised a number of issues, which the Government has to respond to in writing by 24th March 2015.
The CRC required the Government to explain itself on some issues that were raised in a report on privatisation in education in Ghana published by the Ghana Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC) and the GI-ESCR in August this year. In particular the CRC asked Ghana “to provide detailed information on the reasons behind the increase in private education and the low quality of public education, including lack of teachers and teacher absenteeism, in the State party, limiting access to quality education for children who cannot afford private school tuitions”.[1] It also asked Ghana to provide disaggregated data on children attending private schools.
Leslie Tettey, the national coordinator of the GNECC, welcomed this important development:
“Access to quality education should not be determined by one’s ability to pay for it. Rapid growth of private schools, including low-cost private schools, will foster social segregation, to the detriment of the most marginalised people. Education is a public good, and not a commodity. Private schools can complement public education but should not replace it”.
This is the second time in a few months that the CRC questions the impact of privatisation in education on the right to education, following recommendations made to Morocco last month to assess the effect of privatisation on the right to education. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Mr Singh, is also expected to highlight this issue on Monday in New-York in his presentation to the UN General Assembly. This reflects the rise of privatisation around the world and the threats it poses for the realisation of the right to education.
The GNECC and the GI-ESCR now hope that the Government will respond accurately and transparently to the questions that have been submitted to them and look forward to a fuller examination of privatisation of education in Ghana during the formal review of the State in June 2015.
Contacts :
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Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Sylvain Aubry on +212 6 22 37 86 37 /
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Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition: Leslie Tettey, +233 726 30 85 85 /
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The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) is an international non-governmental human rights organization which seeks to advance the realization of economic, social and cultural rights throughout the world, tackling the endemic problem of global poverty through a human rights lens. See http://www.globalinitiative-escr.org/
The Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition isa network of civil society organizations, professional groupings, educational/research institutions and other practitioners interested in promoting quality basic education for all. Formed in 1999, the coalition has steadily grown over the years with a current membership of over 200 organizations. See http://gneccgh.org/
[1]Paragraph 14.
Human Rights Committee questions Israel on rights related to housing, water, sanitation and agricultural land
Relying on the Parallel Report submitted by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Human Rights Committee this week questioned Israel on violations of rights related to housing, water, sanitation and agricultural land. The Report and questioning focused in part on Israel’s failure to implement the previous Concluding Observations adopted in 2010. The 2010 Concluding Observations where the result of a Joint Parallel Report submitted by Global Initiative staff, then with the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), and its partner Al Haq. That Parallel Report resulted in the some of the strongest statements by the Human Rights Committee to date on violations related to housing and the first Concluding Observations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) related to access to water and sanitation.
This week, on the issue of access to water, the Committee questioned Israel on the lack of access to water for Palestinians living in the West Bank as well as the dangerously low quality of water in the Gaza Strip. In 2010, the Committee found that denial of access to water could amount to a violation of the right to life guaranteed by Article 6 of the ICCPR.
The Committee also questioned Israel on the lack of electricity and water in the context of access to sanitation. It also focused on the right to ancestral land and traditional livelihood of the Bedouin population as well as access of all Palestinians to natural resources including agricultural land. The focus on denial of access to agricultural land was a focus of the GI-ESCR Parallel Report and the questioning on this issue is groundbreaking under the ICCPR.
The Committee again condemned punitive house demolitions as well as forced evictions in the context of construction of Israeli settlements and discriminatory planning and zoning regimes. In 2010, the Committee reaffirmed that forced evictions violate the right to be free from unlawful or arbitrary interference with the home (Art. 17) but also found that they may rise to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR.
The GI-ESCR hopes that the resulting Concluding Observations from this round of periodic reporting will reaffirm that denial of access to, or destruction of, housing, water and sanitation violate the ICCPR, and hopes that the Committee also finds that denial of access to, or destruction of, agricultural land also rises to such violations.
Transcript of Human Rights Committee questions is available HERE.
Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Parallel Report is available HERE.
Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Parallel Report for the List of Issues is available HERE.
Human Rights Committee 2010 Concluding Observations are available HERE.
COHRE / Al Haq 2010 Parallel Report is available HERE.
Bringing issues of privatisation and the right to education to the UN
Ce poste est aussi disponible en français ici: http://globalinitiative-escr.org/?p=1535Este artículo también está disponible en español: http://www.campanaderechoeducacion.org/privatizacion/planteando-cuestiones-de-educacion-y-privatizacion-ante-la-onu/
This post was initially posted on The Right to Education Project's blog, which kindly let us re-post it. See the original on http://www.right-to-education.org/blog/civil-society-organisations-discussed-privatisation-and-right-education-during-human-rights. For more information on advocacy on the right to education in Morocco, see our page.
Sylvain Aubry -
12 SEPTEMBER 2014
It is the morning of Wednesday 3rd September, at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights headquarter in Geneva. The dice is cast; in a few minutes, we will know. My Moroccan colleague, who represents the Moroccan Coalition on Education for All, and myself, who represents the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR) are waiting anxiously. Will they ask the question? What will the government respond? The moment comes. Ms Amal Aldoseri, a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), brings up a number of questions about the education system in Morocco, and finally asks: “Could you explain the impact of the development of private education on inequalities and the right to education in your State?”
We cannot help but feel an inner sense of excitement at what is happening. We are nearing our goal, after of one year of hard work to try to draw attention to the creeping privatization of education in Morocco and its devastating effects. The Moroccan government will finally have to explain why, for more than a decade, it has supported and promoted the development of fee-paying, profit-making, private schools, tripling the amount of students enrolled in private schools, thereby participating to widen the inequalities in access to quality education and further dividing the society between rich and poor.
The government is represented in Geneva by 20-strong Moroccan delegation led by the Minister for Solidarity, Women, Family and Social Development, Ms Bassima Hakkaoui. The delegation came to Geneva to discuss its implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, as part of the periodic review that the CRC normally conducts every five years. The government representative in charge of education starts responding to Ms Aldoseri’s questions. He gives a response to all the issues she raised, praising the ‘great progress’ and the achievement of Morocco with regards to education, followed by Ms Hakkaoui, who complements his responses, except…. that they both ignore the question about privatisation in education.
We think that it’s finished, CRC has very little time to conduct the review, privatisation was a small question at the end and may seem to the Committee to be a small issue; the discussion will now move to the next issue, as planned. The government will not give any information, and we’ll have to cross our fingers that the Committee still pays attention to privatisation in education in its written recommendations. But this is when we see someone raising his hand. Mr Hatem Kotrane, a member of CRC from Tunisia, asks a follow-up question on privatisation. Basing himself on statistics from the Ministry of Education that my Moroccan colleague gave him earlier during the break, he wants to know why figures show that most teachers in private schools are also teaching in public establishments. Moment of silence in the room. Another hand is raised. Mr Benyam Mezmur, a member of the CRC, asks an additional follow-up question, and wants to know why the government did not respond to the question on privatisation in education, which is a key point.
The government delegation looks unsure. Someone starts responding, and indicates that Morocco aims at reaching as soon as possible ‘20% of pupils enrolled in private schools.’ Ms Hakkaoui, the minister, follows and praises private education. She indicates that the government ‘promotes free competition in education, which is good for all citizens.’ They both insist that private education is ‘well regulated in Morocco,’ and that ‘no teacher from the public sector teaching in private schools.’ With this last statement, the Moroccan civil society organisations representatives seated next to me cannot help having a semi-amused, semi-shocked reaction, as everyone in Morocco knows that this is simply untrue…
The meeting proceeds, and the discussion is now moving to another issue. CRC members ask a set of questions about the right to health. However, as the government starts responding, Mr Benyam Mezmur, the member of the CRC, raises his hand once again: ‘I don’t usually insist and come back to an issue that has already been discussed, but… was the interpretation not working well, or did I understand well that the government of Morocco is aiming at reaching 20% of pupils in private schools!? Education is a public good, and it’s the responsibility of the government to provide quality education for all! … You say that everything is going well in your education system, but could you at least mention two issues that you’re facing?”
Another moment of silence in the room. Ms Hakkaoui attempts a vague response, but quickly, the inter-ministry delegate in charge of human rights intervenes. With his human rights experience, he perhaps understands better that the discussion is going the wrong way for them, and he eventually admits that the education system is not perfect – though without giving any detail why –, adding that the country is working on a reform of the education system. At this point, we know that we have made a great step forward in our advocacy, and that our efforts of the last 10 months are starting to pay off. The CRC, thanks to its perseverance and precise questions, has forced the government to unveil its support to private education and to publicly show its embarrassment and lack of reflection on the impact it has on the right to education.
How did we get to this point? To reach this moment, these 5 minutes where the Moroccan government has to publicly explain itself about the disastrous effect of its privatisation policies, we have worked for several months. The GI-ESCR and the Moroccan Coalition started in October, thanks to the support of the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative (PERI), by conducting research on the scale and impact of privatisation in education in Morocco. Following this research, we submitted two reports to the CRC in December, ahead of the February CRC pre-session (which is a preliminary review) in February.
From then, we prepared simplified advocacy documents, had a number of meetings with stakeholders in Geneva to raise awareness about this still little-known issue, and actively mobilised and coordinated with civil society organisations in Morocco trough discussions and workshops. We were present in Geneva on the day of pre-session of the CRC, and although we were not invited at the pre-session itself (it’s a closed session only on invitation), we organised with other Moroccan organisations that were invited to attend to raise the issue of privatisation, and we used that opportunity to talk to key stakeholders outside of the session.
We got a first victory when the CRC included in its list of issues, which is a list of written questions that the CRC sends to the States before the review, questions about inequalities in education and the development of private schools. The State responded to these questions in June, but was very vague on the issue of privatisation. We then published a third report, highlighting what was missing in the government’s response.
It is only after this work that we got into Geneva, for the actual review session. At that point, most of the work was done, and we only had to do a final push to raise awareness about the issue. We sat, and waited eagerly for the CRC to ask its questions… The last step was then to try to get people who were not in Geneva – in particular people in Morocco – to know about what happened in that room at the Palais des Nations. Working with a broad network of actors Morocco was essential. We contacted many journalists and got good news coverage, in French, like here, here, here, or there, and in Arabic, like here. The good connexions of our partners in Morocco were very important!
Getting the CRC to question Morocco is not the end of the journey: this is just one State amongst many affected by privatisation, we need to wait to see whether the concluding observations (written recommendations sent to States) that that CRC will publish at the end of September adequately address the issue, and there will then be a lot of work needed to convince the government to implement those recommendations. This is, still, significant. The fact that a UN Committee of human rights experts publicly questions the development of private education and reminds the world that education is a public good is a major step. It is also a formidable message of hope for the thousands of activists who campaign around the world to defend public quality education for all, and beyond, a conception of society where every child can develop their personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential, and where every child learns to live together in an open, tolerant, and vibrant society.
Sylvain Aubry is an independent consultant on human rights based in Nairobi, Kenya, from where he works with various organisations. He is currently working with the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Right to Education Project, and a number of other global and domestic partners on aresearch and advocacy project on privatisation and the right to education. If you are interested in getting involved, please free to contact him at
Statement to Human Rights Council on Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation
UN Human Rights Council 27th sessionSeptember 2014, Geneva Oral Statement given by the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights In relation to Item #3, Clustered Interactive Dialogue with Special Rapporteur on Water and Sanitation and Special Rapporteur on Hazardous Wastes
Lucy McKernan, GI-ESCR UN Liaison addresses the Human Rights Council
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would like to congratulate the Special Rapporteur on water and sanitation on her term as mandate holder which she has conducted with great energy, passion, rigor and dedication. We congratulate her on the outstanding contribution she has made to the advancement of the rights to water and sanitation both in terms of their substantive content and their prominence in the work of the Council. We pay tribute to her excellent work on good practices, stigma, private sector participation, sustainability and her strong advocacy on the inclusion of human rights standards and monitoring mechanisms in the post-2015 development agenda and eliminating inequalities in that context.
We also welcome the Special Rapporteur’s report on ‘Common violations of the human rights to water and sanitation’ which provides useful practical guidance to States and other actors on what violations look like, how to avoid them and how to remedy them. We commend the constructive tone of the report and its invitation to participatory dialogue with States and the emphasis on assisting States with prevention.
The Report reaffirms the ‘comprehensive understanding of violations’ of to the rights to water and sanitation: an approach which is equally applicable to other economic and social rights, and is supported by the language of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. This comprehensive approach says that violations include:
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interferences with the right, such as the impact of the Gaza Blockade and recent assault on Gaza on water and sanitation infrastructure and facilities in Gaza;
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failures to provide the minimum essential levels of the right, such as the large scale disconnections of water services from poor households in Detroit, US earlier this year;
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failures to take positive steps to realize the right, such as in Turkana county in Kenya where 80% of the population practice open defecation, yet the government has allocated discriminatory allocation of water or sanitation services, such as is seen in the appalling conditions of urban slums all around the world.
A comprehensive understanding of violations is critical to addressing structural and systemic violations involving the ‘greatest number of victims’ and ‘the most intolerable deprivations’ and to helping us to identify and prevent violations.
We invite States to welcome this important Report and to review their implementation of the rights to water and sanitation in their country through the lens of a comprehensive violations framework.
The Report can be accessed HERE
Lucy McKernan Geneva Representative, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights E:
Right to education and privatisation
The GI-ESCR is currently leading three projects on privatisation in education:
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A research and advocacy project on the impact of the development of private education in Morocco
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International advocacy on privatisation in education using the human rights framework
The right to education guarantees that everyone should enjoy a quality education, free from discrimination and exclusion. This right, as UNESCO has recognized, is “… a powerful tool by which economically and socially marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of poverty and participate fully as citizens.”[1] While important progress has been made in ensuring that the right to education is enjoyed by all, today millions of children remain deprived of educational opportunities, and globally the UN estimates that 123 million young people between the ages of 15-24 do not have basic reading and writing skills (61 percent of whom are young women).
Amidst this backdrop of continuing inequality, the global landscape when it comes to education is also rapidly changing. One of the most notable of these changes is the recent trend towards privatization in education in many countries. The detrimental impacts related to private investment in provision of health care, water and sanitation infrastructure, and land, including ‘land-grabbing’, have increasingly been documented in recent years. Privatization of education appears to be the new horizon that profit making investors are rushing into.
This trend is proving to have significant implications for the enjoyment of the human right to education, both in terms of quality and accessibility to education. As the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education highlighted in a recent report about the Millennium Development Goals Post-2015 Framework: “in many parts of the world inequalities in opportunities for education will be exacerbated by the growth of unregulated private providers of education, with wealth or economic status becoming the most important criterion to access a quality education.”[2]
In particular, concern has been raised that privatization in education can lead to greater discrimination and that “[m]arginalised groups fail to enjoy the bulk of the positive impacts and also bear the disproportionate burden of the negative impacts of privatisation [in education].”[3] Wealth inequalities, between those who can afford to pay for private education providers and those who cannot, but also spatial inequalities, are just reinforced by privatization, further pushing into poverty already vulnerable groups.
Besides, privatization implies that States are no longer themselves providing education to the general public, and instead allow this role to be filled by non-State entities and institutions. However, under the international human rights framework, States are the duty-bearer when it comes to respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to education, and they must ensure that there is no retrogression when it comes to the advancement and enjoyment of this right. Besides, privatisation questions and weakens the role of the State in one of the most essential social services, affecting issues from democratic participation to accountability and also impacting many other human rights.
Further discussion and dialogue are needed within international human rights circles to shed light on these issues, and to highlight people’s experiences where privatization in education is taking place. To help advance the discussion, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its partners, with the support of the Privatization in Education Research Initiative have engaged in national and international advocacy on the topic.
Related news
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15/07/2014: Privatisation in Education: Advocacy and Research Workshop and Public Events Reports
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07/07/2014: Report Highlights how Privatization of Education Negatively Impacts Girls in Many Parts of the World
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27/05/2014: Consultation on the impact of the privatisation in/of education on girls' right to education
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04/02/2014: The UN questions private education in Morocco
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31//01/2014: Privatization of education in Morocco breaches human rights: new report
For more information, please see the following documents
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The last report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education highlighting the impact of private education on the right to education is available here: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/68/294
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The report submitted by the GI-ESCR and partners to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child on privatisation is available here: http://globalinitiative-escr.org/?p=1139 and the recommendations can be found here: http://globalinitiative-escr.org/?p=1140. The GI-ESCR also preapred a reaction to the response of the Moroccan government to the list of issues raised by the CRC, which is here http://globalinitiative-escr.org/?p=1414
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A visual summary of key issues in the reports is available here: http://globalinitiative-escr.org/?p=1329
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The list of issues on Morocco raised by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child after the GI-ESCR's advocacy is available here: http://goo.gl/4P5Lch (French).
See also
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The website of the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative contains a lot of resources on the topic: www.periglobal.org/
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The website of the Right to Education Project sums up the documents on privatisation in education and the right to education: www.right-to-education.org/issue-page/privatisation-education
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The Global Campaign on Education has launched a webpage on privatisation in education: www.campaignforeducation.org/en/campaigns/privatisation
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The website of Education International, which represents organisations of teachers and other education employees across the globe, and is engaged on privatisation http://www.ei-ie.org/
[1] See: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/leading-the-international-agenda/right-to-education/
[2] UN Doc. A/68/294, para. 26.
[3] The Right to Education Project (RTE), ‘Privatisation in Education: Global Trends and Human Rights Impact,’ 2014.
In Memoriam: Odindo Opiata
Odindo Opiata passed away in Nairobi, Kenya on 16 August. Opiata was a leader in the field of human rights and social justice not only in Kenya but globally. He joined the Board of Directors of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2013 after serving on our International Advisory Council and attending our initial Strategy Meeting in 2011. We will always be incredibly grateful for his wisdom, insights and support of our work. Opiata was always such an inspiration to us and we'll always know how lucky we were to have him as a friend.
Opiata was one of the earliest leaders in the economic, social and cultural rights movement in Kenya and beyond. He was a driving force behind work to combat forced evictions, as a lawyer for Kituo Cha Sheria carrying out litigation against forced evictions even when he knew the chances of success were minimal, and then as the founder of Hakijamii - the Centre for Economic and Social Rights - which he founded in 2005 and which pioneered the work of facilitating the mobilisation of activists in informal settlements around the struggle for the realisation of their rights to housing, water and sanitation and other economic and social rights. He was also involved in the work of ESCR-Net for many years, including on the Steering Committee of the Working Group on Strategic Litigation.
We know that Hakijamii and all of the others organizations and persons he's influenced over the years will carry on his work, and his legacy will only grown.
For more information on the contributions of Odindo Opiata, see HERE.
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.
Advocacy Update on Rights to Housing, Land and Access to Productive Resources
The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is pleased to announce the second in a series of updates highlighting in particular important advancements in the areas of housing, land and access to productive resources, as well as touching upon other social rights such as the human rights to water, sanitation, food and education. This publication, on Advocacy Update on Rights to Housing, Land and Access to Productive Resources, is meant to help inform advocates, policy makers, civil society organizations and other stakeholders about recent developments in the field, and draw attention to emerging areas of work.
It also includes a special ‘IN FOCUS’ section on ‘The impact of privatization on the human right to education.’
We hope that this publication will be a useful resource for you and that it helps to raise awareness of the many advancements that are taking place at international, regional and national levels.
Access the current Advocacy Update on Rights to Housing, Land and Access to Productive Resources HERE.
The previous Advocacy Update on Rights to Housing, Land and Access to Productive Resources can be found HERE.
