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How can grassroots organizations leverage digital media to support their campaigns? What resources are needed? Last January (6th-11th), ESCR-Net members National Fisheries Solidarity Organisation (NAFSO) and the Blue Club held a workshop on media campaigning in Colombo, Sri Lanka. 27 activists from across the country, the majority of whom were young people, participated in the training.

We the undersigned organizations strongly condemn the recent killings within the span of three days of Human rights defenders Ayanda Ngila in the eKhenana settlement and Siyabonga Manqele in the eNkanini settlement in Cato Manor, in Durban, South Africa. Both were members of the Abahlali baseMjondolo movement, which promotes the rights of shack dwellers in the informal settlements in South Africa.

In the aftermath of the killing of Ayanda Ngila, ESCR-Net expresses solidarity and condolences with his loved ones and the wider Abahlali baseMjondolo movement in South Africa. Ayanda Ngila was tragically shot and killed on 8 March 2022, allegedly by members of the local ANC party.

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Ahead of upcoming intersessional meetings in Geneva in March 2022, ESCR-Net members have adopted a...

In the face of the pandemic, women in all their diversity – in the unions and factories, in farms and indigenous communities, in urban poor centres, in structured organisations or informal movements – continued to mobilise and put themselves at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. While continuing their ongoing, and the  struggle against the deepening political and socio-economic crises inherent to a patriarchal, colonial, racist and imperialist system.

Members of the Working Group on Women and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights came together during a strategic meeting on women and work (September 28, 29 & 30) which aimed to identify key priorities for the years to come. For the occasion, an ad hoc committee was set up to guide the...

ESCR-Net is happy to announce that a new board has been elected for the period 2022 – 2024. The elections ran from 17 November to 17 December 2021, featured 25 candidates and elicited 125 votes from the network’s organizational members, resulting in the re-election of:

  • Binota Moy
  • ...

Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) are international agreements for the protection of intellectual property monopolies (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets etc.) monitored by the World Trade Organization (WTO). TRIPS obligates member states to...

Nearly 200 ESCR-Net members and allies joined together to amplify the voices of our communities who have been most affected by the inequalities exacerbated by the WTO’s refusal to pass a comprehensive waiver on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement on COVID-19 vaccines and therapies.  

On 6 December 2021, ESCR-Net sent a collective letter to the South African authorities calling on them to stop the ongoing attacks on the eKhenana Commune in Durban, South Africa.

Throughout 2021, at least ten Abahlali basemjondolo leaders from the eKhenana Commune have been criminalized...