WOMEN AND ESCR - October 2012
ESCR-Participation at AWID
The Women and ESCR Working Group of ESCR-Net successfully organized an interactive workshop at the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 19, 2012. The session was attended by over 100 participants and focused on clearly and practically conveying how the ESCR framework can enhance the effectiveness of advocacy on issues related to health, education, work, etc. for women and girls. The session was interpreted in to Spanish, French, Arabic and Turkish. In addition to an introduction by Rebecca Brown, ESCR-Net, there were short presentations to stimulate thought and conversation by Ximena Andión Ibañez, Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE) and Equis: Justicia para Mujeres (Mexico), and Leilani Farha, Center for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA, Canada). The participants in the session were pushed to actively engage in suggesting ideas of how the human rights framework could be applied in their own work, through the lens of the Alyne da Silva Pimental case on maternal mortality before CEDAW. Lilian Sepulveda of Center for Reproductive Rights also provided additional comments and insight regarding their strategy in that case to further concretize the examples for participants. This was a great outreach opportunity for the working group as many participants were not aware of ESCR-Net or the Women and ESCR Working Group and were interested in learning more and potentially joining the group.
Signs developed for the AWID forum and march for women's rights in Istanbul, April 2012
Following this session, the Women and ESCR Working Group was able to hold a meeting of the members and partners who were present at the Forum. These members included: Soha Abdelaty (EIPR, Egypt); Kinda Mohamedieh (ANND, Lebanon); Mayra Gomez (GI-ESCR, US); Alexandra Solik (Karat Coalition, Poland); Wathshlah Naidu (IWRAW-Asia Pacific, Malaysia); Leilani Farha (CERA, Canada); Ana Irma Rivera (CLADEM); Ximena Andión Ibañez (GIRE and Equis, Mexico); and Lisa Pusey (Independent Expert, Australia). During this meeting the group agreed on priorities for resource development, capacity building, litigation and advocacy support and fundraising. The group also agreed that continued engagement with UN bodies was a priority.
Facilitating Litigation Support for Women's ESCR
In partnership with the Strategic Litigation Initiative of the Adjudication Working Group, members of the Women and ESCR Working Group have provided input and support to cases moving forward in places like Uganda in relation to women’s right to health.
Continued Partnership with BGRF and CLADEM
As announced in the previous ESCR-Net Newsletter, the Women and ESCR Working Group has entered into formal partnerships with the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) in support of its Women’s International Human Rights Training Institute. The group will continue to engage and will provide training on the use of UN mechanisms in the upcoming session. In addition, the Women and ESCR group is working with Comité de América Latina y el Caribe para la Defensa de los Derechos de la Mujer (CLADEM) to ensure the integration of ESCR in their campaign on implementation of women’s human rights and to strengthen the international scope of their campaign.
Please contact Rebecca Brown if you are interested in finding out more about this Working Group and how to get involved at rbrown [at] escr-net.org.