Women and ESCR Working Group

Our Vision

For economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) to have transformative potential in women’s lives, they must be fully implemented and reflect women’s lived, diverse experiences. The Women and ESCR Working Group of ESCR-Net is working collectively to ensure women’s experiences and analyses are at the center of domestic and international advocacy, policy-making and legal developments related to human rights.

Aims Of Work

Build an effective network of women’s rights and wider human rights organizations, including grassroots groups committed to advancing women’s rights and leadership, mobilized to extend solidarity and share lessons within and across regions;
Contribute to the development and harmonization of, and state compliance with, international standards related to women’s ESCR and substantive equality (evidenced by progressive recommendations, statements and jurisprudence issued through treaty body, UPR, UN Special Procedures, and regional mechanism processes, and through implementation of women’s ESCR and substantive equality in practice);
Contribute to the incorporation and analysis of the human rights framework, with particular attention to women’s ESCR concerns, into international UN-driven development and other processes;

Strengthen the ability of advocates and litigators to use international human rights standards and related jurisprudence in advocacy, organizing and litigation at the domestic, regional and international levels;
Increase collaborative work with other WGs at ESCR-Net, so as to encourage consideration of gender issues in other areas of work and collaboration on vital themes like development-induced displacement, land-grabbing, and progressive realization of the right to an adequate standard of living, including housing, water and sanitation; and

Develop key resources to increase awareness and capacity to claim and participate in frameworks (such as reporting and complaint mechanisms) relevant to women’s ESCR at the national, regional and international levels.

Impact Of Our Work

The Women and ESCR Working Group and its members have become central actors in the promotion and recognition of women’s ESCR at the international level. The working group has built a consultative and institutional relationship with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and other institutions. In addition, through a series of briefings on women’s ESCR with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ESCR-Net has built a reputation for its range of regional experiences and depth of knowledge related to these issues. Through the implementation of a series of exchange dialogues and learning workshops at the regional level, the Women and ESCR Working Group has strengthen the ability of advocates and litigators to use international human rights standards and related jurisprudence in advocacy, organizing and litigation at the domestic, regional and international levels.

Who Is Involved

Organizational Members

Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND), MENA
Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), Asia
ASOCIACIÓN Q’UKUMATZ, Guatemala
Avocats sans Frontières, International
AWID, International
Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF), Bulgaria
Canada Without Poverty/Canada Sans Pauvreté
Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), International
Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL), USA
Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS), Argentina
Chiadzwa Community Development Trust, Zimbabwe
CIARENA AC, Mexico
Cladem, Latin America
Collectif Femmes du Mali (COFEM), Mali
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Egypt
EnGendeRights, Philippines
Equis Justicia para las Mujeres, Mexico
Escuela Nacional Sindical, Colombia
Femmes Côte d’Ivoire Expérience FCIEX, Côte d’Ivoire
FIAN, Inernational
FIDA Kenya
Global Initiative for ESCR (GI-ESCR), USA
Hakijamii, Kenya
Health Rights of Women and Children Program, François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University, USA
ILSA, Colombia
Instituto de Liderazgo Simone de Beauvoir (ILSB), Mexico
International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Switzerland
International Womens Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific (IWRAW), Asia Pacific
Just Associates (JASS), International
Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre, Nigeria
Kenya Human Rights Coalition (KHRC), Kenya
Legal Resource Centre (LRC), South Africa
National Fisheries Solidarity Organization, Sri-Lanka
National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE), Trinidad Tobago
Ogiek Peoples' Development Program, Kenya
Tlachinollan, Mexico
Women and Law in Southern African Research and Education Trust (WLSA), Africa

Individual members

Alison Aggarwal; Australia
Lisa Pusey; Australia
Patricia Ramírez; Colombia.

Get Involved!

We welcome you to join the Women and ESCR Working Group Listserve by sending an email to ESCR-FEM-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (There is also a parallel discussion group in Spanish, which you are welcome to join by sending an email to DESC-MUJER@yahoogroups.com.) We encourage you to use these lists actively to share information, requests for solidarity, or possibilities for collective work.

For more information on how to get involved in the projects listed above, contact Aya Fujimura-Fanselow (afujimura-fanselow@escr-net.org).