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Model of Work

What I really value about being part of ESCR-Net is that it has remained true to its core principles. The modus operandi may change, but the Network continues to be fiercely committed to these principles and to being member- and social-movement-led.
— Priyanthi Fernando (International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific, Malaysia)
Endorois & Ogiek Peoples’ Procession In Nairobi 5. 6th Feb 2024 Copy
CLR Project 2023 Nairobi
IMG 2695
GuateSaroManjaJackson
Core Principles

ESCR-Net is its members united by this common mission, and our strength is found in member-led collective advocacy and campaigning guided by our core principles:

  • Advancing all human rights, as universal, indivisible and interdependent, with a focus on ESCR issues;
  • Ensuring regional and gender balance in leadership, intersectional gender analysis, and the centrality of grassroots groups and social movements;
  • Grounding network activities in the lived experience of people resisting ESCR violations, and advancing concrete, collective actions able to affect systemic change;
  • Striving for shared analysis and consensus in decision-making as a member-led network, but respecting the autonomy of individual participants’ positions.

These core principles also reflect an understanding of how we will effectively build a global movement with shared power to advance the demands of communities for dignity, well-being, substantive equality, and self-determination. This baseline informs all Network processes and policies, from the development of political positions to the formation of governance structures to planning for strategy meetings and workshops, via a never-ending effort to live into our core principles. ESCR-Net strives to create horizontal and radically democratic spaces to deepen critical analysis and build collective action for transformative change, working to model a political approach that reflects the world we want to build.

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Theory of Change

Centered on our core principles, ESCR-Net’s theory of change involves four elements:

  • Facilitating practical member-to-member solidarity,
  • Creating space for mutual learning across regions and movements,
  • Deepening shared analysis of the global conditions facing our communities and
  • Advancing collective action towards systemic change.
Structure

ESCR-Net is led by members who build shared analysis, define strategies, and undertake collective action, foremost through working groups, including Women and ESCR, Corporate Accountability, Strategic Litigation, Economic Policy, Environment and ESCR, Monitoring, and Social Movements. Working groups annually evaluate their progress, revise intended outcomes, and prioritize collective actions as part of shared work plans. ESCR-Net also coordinates a System of Solidarity (SOS), harnessing the collective power of the Network to address urgent threats to members, their communities and close allies, while taking up the wider demands of these human rights defenders. ESCR-Net is guided by a Board elected from and by members based on principles of regional and gender balance and inclusion of social movements. The secretariat coordinates and supports the collective advocacy, community-led research, strategic communications, and campaigning of members.