Caselaw Database - All Cases

ESCR-Net Caselaw Database: A database on domestic, regional and international decisions regarding Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), the Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), the Asociación Síndrome de Down de la República Argentina (ASDRA) and the Red por los Derechos de las Personas con Discapacidad (REDI) filed a collective action for protection with the aim of having the National State (Ministry of Education - National Directorate for Information and Evaluation of Educational Quality) take the necessary measures to produce sufficient and appropriate information on the educational trajectories of students with disabilities.

Indigenous community members from the Lhaka Honhat Association sued Argentina on behalf of 132 Indigenous communities belonging to the Wichí (Mataco), Iyjwaja (Chorote), Komlek (Toba), Niwackle (Chulupí), and Tapy'y (Tapiete) peoples who live on lots with the cadastral registrations 175 and 5557 in the Province of Salta (previously known as and referred to in the case as lots 14 and 55).

The complaint was initiated against GVL in October 2012 before the RSPO. The Complaints Panel’s first decision in the case was on December 13, 2012, finding that the complaints had merit and issuing a Stop Order against GVL. Beginning in 2013, GVL was required to file quarterly reports on its activities in Liberia, including its efforts to improve its operations and to comply with later decisions from the RSPO.

The claimant filed a tutela action against the Public Works of Cartagena alleging that they put into operation an uncompleted sewer system, producing overflowing black waters and unsanitary conditions in two neighborhoods. The complaint alleged a violation of Article 88 of the Colombian constitution protecting the right to public health and asked for injunctive relief to prevent irreparable harm, as established under Article 5 of the Decree 2591.

This tutela case concerned the requirement that the state provide health services to a group of children living in an impoverished area of Bogotá. Four hundred and eighteen families brought this action against the Ministry of Health and the District Secretary of Health seeking free vaccines against two strains of bacterial meningitis. The plaintiffs argued their case under Article 44 of the Colombian Constitution, which guarantees certain freedoms and protections to children, and under various treaties to which Colombia subscribed.

In August 2008, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s NACO developed an “Office Memorandum” in response to a public interest litigation (PIL), in which the Supreme Court reviewed the steps taken by NACO to combat HIV/AIDS and the services being provided to patients. The Supreme Court had issued directives, including those aimed at improving the sufficiency of centres distributing second line anti-retroviral therapy (ART).

Supreme Court of the Netherlands Orders State to Reduce Greenhouse Gases by at Least 25% by 2020, Compared to 1990 Levels

The claimant in this case is the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy of the State of the Netherlands (the State), who appealed in cassation from the Court of Appeal’s ruling in favor of Stichting Urgenda (Urgenda), an organization working to combat climate change.

In 2005, Germany began the fourth stage of a program aimed at reducing the costs of the country’s social welfare system, an initiative named after its chief architect, Volkswagen personnel director, Peter Hartz. Hartz IV merged unemployment and welfare benefits, fixing the standard benefit for single people living in old West German states (including East Berlin) at 345 Euros per month. This amount was determined based on a statistical survey of income and expenditure of lower income groups. Benefits for other household members were determined as a percentage of 345 Euros.

The plaintiff in this case is a man whose unemployment benefits were reduced first by 30% and then by 60% when he declined a proposed employer and later failed to accept a training and trial placement in another role. The man objected to the reductions unsuccessfully, and filed suit in the Social Court. Before rendering a decision, the Social Court stayed the proceedings in order to obtain judicial review from the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) as to whether or not the sanctions scheme in question is in compliance with the Basic Law.

High Court of Uganda Finds Discrepancy in Quality between Public, Government Aided and Public Private Partnership Schools, Violates the Right to Education and Equality

Following the introduction of the Universal Secondary Education (USE) program in 2007 by the Government of Uganda, the program was subsequently implemented in public schools, government grant aided schools, private for profit Public Private Partnership (PPP) schools, and private not for profit PPPs. The Government paid UGX 47,000 per student for those enrolled in PPP schools, as opposed to UGX 230,000 per student enrolled in government aided and public schools.