I.             INTRODUCTION

II.          ADJUDICATION OF ESCR

III.        OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE ICESCR

IV.         BUDGET ANALYSIS AND ESCR

V.           CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY

VI.         TRADE, INVESTMENT, FINANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

VII.       HUMAN RIGHT TO HEALTH

VIII.    WOMEN AND ESCR

                                           

I.           Introduction

One of the main goals of the International Strategy Meeting is to provide the space for its Members to create new and more systematic pathways for greater collective global action on social and economic justice through human rights. Participants in ESCR-Net’s different areas of work will benefit significantly from meeting together—in one location with interpretation and preparation—to network, strategize and advance their collective agendas as well as to explore the intersections of their work. Additionally, the meeting will provide the occasion to explore the development of new areas of collective work or the reactivation of others that respond to identified gaps and emerging challenges in the field or work done in the past within ESCR-Net.[1] 

The International Strategy Meeting will be comprised of three morning plenary sessions, a number of afternoon working sessions, a General Assembly to debate governance issues and open spaces organized by participants to discuss issues not included on the main agenda. Site-visits will also be organized. Please refer to the calendar for more detail.

The three morning plenary sessions will be held to share the collective work done to date by ESCR-Net members in each area, to reflect on the difficulties and challenges ahead, to explore building a more effective, collective effort that responds to the needs of social movement and grassroots groups, and to discuss conceptual developments that have occurred in the field in recent years.

The afternoon working sessions will revolve around the five thematic areas of the Network and two potential new (or renewed) areas of work for ESCR-Net identified through the applications process:

• Adjudication of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR)

• Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

• Budget Analysis and ESCR

• Corporate Accountability

• Trade, Investment, Finance and Human Rights

• The Human Right to Health

• Women and ESCR

In this context and considering that the agenda of each area has been developed as a coherent and cohesive set of sessions to prepare strategic discussions on collective work plans, we highly encourage participants to choose ONE area of work and follow closely its discussions. However, participants do have the choice, should they have the need, to sign-up to any of the individual sessions. Please note that the sessions of each area of work will take place simultaneously and that some sessions will be co-hosted by two or more groups.

The following agendas have been designed using a constantly collaborative process, based on the input of a number of involved organizations and individual activists. We greatly appreciate their time and thank them especially for the effort they devoted to helping to develop these working session agendas.

Agendas

 II.           

Adjudication of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

 

This area of work was created to facilitate communication between and develop tools for organizations and individuals interested in defending ESCR through legal mechanisms. The Meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of strategies and updated information on the development of case law related to ESCR, thereby contributing to the continuous development and update of the ESCR-Net Caselaw Database and other projects of this group. 

DAY ONE

This introductory session aims at sharing different experiences of domestic and international justiciability of ESC rights from four regions of the world (Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe) with emphasis on those jurisdictions that often lack attention. Presenters will reflect particularly on general lessons learned from their experience. 

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         A Model of Comprehensive Enforcement? The

Colombian Constitutional Court

·         Out from the Shadows: South Asian Courts take on ESC Rights

·         Building an Effective Litigation Strategy in South Africa

·         Social Rights of Roma: Lessons Learned from a Decade of European Litigation

Co-hosted with the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR Group, this roundtable aims at generating a lively discussion on the relationship between lawyers and professional organizations, social movements and claimants in litigation. The debate will be preceded by brief presentations by various stakeholders: a claimant, a representative of a social movement, a representative of a community-based organization and a lawyer. 

 

Co-hosted with the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR Group, this session aims at discussing trends and challenges to current core issues that litigators are facing in the national and international spheres, namely, the challenges in litigating positive obligations, the reasonableness test, the limitations of claiming economic and social rights through civil and political rights and the difficulties in getting effective remedies. 

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Litigating Positive Obligations: from Resources to Collective Standing

·         How Far Can Civil and Political Rights Take Us?

·         Getting Effective Remedies

·         International and Domestic Adjudication of Social Rights: Making the Connection and the challenge of the new OP-ICESCR

DAY TWO

Co-hosted with the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR and the Women and ESCR Groups, the purpose of this session is to examine litigation experiences on equality rights and the type of ESCR claims they generate, utilizing different international instruments. The session will focus on the differing views of equality articulated by women, indigenous people, migrants, people with disabilities, in particular in the context of increasing privatization and economic globalization. 

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Litigating Women’s Social Rights

·         The Rights of Women in the South African Courts

·         Intersections between Claiming Social Rights and Fighting Discrimination Based on Poverty

·         Persons with Disabilities: Relevance of National Experiences for the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities        

Co-hosted with the ESCR-Net’s Corporale Accountability and Trade, Investment, Finance & Human Rights Groups, this session aims to explore the challenges of litigating and protecting ESCR in the global economy in traditional and non-traditional fora, like ICSID, the WTO dispute settlement panel, the Inspection Panel of the World Bank, etc. Presenters will focus on the strategies they have utilized and reflect on the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of using the law and its different mechanisms to uphold rights in the global economy. The open discussion of this panel will be oriented to identifying needs and developing channels for collective action in the area of human rights strategic litigation as related to the global economy.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         World Bank Inspection Panel and other International Human Rights Mechanisms

·         Civil Society Intervention before ICSID: The case of Suez v Argentina

·         Joining State and Civil Society Efforts before the WTO: the Brazilian Experience in the Tyres case

·         Challenging EU Partnership Agreements in National Courts

·         Graniti v South Africa: A Multi-Pronged Strategy

·         Challenging TRIPS in National Courts

Building on the work that has been done up to now by the Adjudication of ESCR group (such as the case law database and the discussion group), the aim of this session is twofold: 1) to explore barriers and challenges in the work to date on national and international adjudication of ESCR and determine how collaborative action could address them; and 2) to consolidate a common working agenda or action plan for the years ahead.

 

DAY THREE 

 

Site-visit and ESCR-Net General Assembly. 

 

DAY FOUR

 

Continuation of Session 6.

 III.            Optional Protocol to the ICESCR

ESCR-Net has worked for many years in support of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and now works as part of the Steering Committee of the NGO Coalition for an Optional Protocol.  This Coalition leads the OP-ICESCR Now! Campaign and has developed the agenda for this area of work.   Its main goal is to foster future collective action among participants in support of this mechanism which will allow victims of ESCR violations to seek justice within the UN System. The sessions will offer members of the Network an opportunity to identify spaces for collective action and strategies to support this mechanism. 

 

DAY ONE

In this first session, participants (i) will be given some introductory information about the Optional Protocol, including general information on where the OP process is and on what challenges it faces; and (ii) will jointly explore the potential of this mechanism for the defense of ESCR of different groups, especially those that might not already be involved in supporting it (labor rights groups, indigenous peoples, women’s organizations). 

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Brief Introduction to the Coalition for the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR

·         Brief Introduction to the Process for the Adoption of the Optional Protocol

·         The OP and the Potential of International Litigation on ESCR

·         Migrants and Rural Workers- How will the OP Strengthen their Claims

·         Can the OP Help in the Protection of Informal Settlements Dwellers?

·         Indigenous People’s Rights and the Gaps Closed by the OP

·         Women’s Rights. What is added by the OP-ICESCR? 

Co-hosted with the Adjudication Working Group.

Refer to Session 2 of the Adjudication of ESCR agenda.  

 

Co-hosted with the Adjudication Working Group.                 

Refer to Session 3 of the Adjudication of ESCR agenda.

DAY TWO

Co-hosted with the Adjudication Working Group and Women and ESCR.

Refer to Session 4 of the Adjudication of ESCR agenda.

The purpose of this session is to discuss what are the next steps that need to be taken in support of the Optional Protocol. Experiences of ratification efforts of other Human Rights mechanisms will be shared. Joint efforts for ratification of the OP-ICESCR will be discussed and procedural and substantive challenges will be addressed. The group will also analyze strategies used Geneva and in the capitals to push for ratification. The group will finally debate strategies for the future.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Campaign for the Ratification of the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families

·         The Coalition for an International Criminal Court Example

·         CEDAW Campaign: “Our Rights Are Not Optional!”      

Co-Hosted with the Adjudication Working Group.

Refer to Session 6 of the Adjudication of ESCR agenda. 

DAY THREE 

 

Site-visit and ESCR-Net General Assembly.

DAY FOUR

 

Continuation of Session 6.  

 

Continuation of ESCR-Net General Assembly.

IV. Budget Analysis and ESCR

This area of work was created to facilitate exchange between expert and novice practitioners of human rights budgeting to build awareness, support effective advocacy and increase accountability within the national and local budgeting process. The Meeting will provide a forum for networking, the exchange of strategies and newest information on the development of budget analysis on ESCR, thereby continuing to build capacity within the human rights field to undertake effective budget work. 

DAY ONE

This informative and mutual-learning session will begin by sharing distinct experiences of using budget analysis as a tool to protect economic, social and cultural rights. Presenting groups will also reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of this tool and offer an overview of the challenges they face to accomplish this work and the strategies used to overcome them.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         The Mexico City Government’s Human Rights Oriented Budget

·         Public Interest Litigation: Implementing Effective Food Support Programs in India

·         Gender budgeting

·         Frontloading and the Protection of Rights

·         Applying ESCR Standards to Promote the Rights to Health/Education

The second and third sessions will be devoted to explore the concrete uses of the ESCR framework in budget work. Participants will discuss how specific standards in the field of ESCR such as “progressive realization”, “the use of the maximum available resources”, “discrimination”, etc. can be utilize when analyzing budget allocations.   

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         How to Link Budget Work with ESCR Obligations? Proposal of a Framework

·         Budget Analysis: Building More Effective Policies to Implement the Right to Food

·         Budgeting to Make Children’s Rights Effective. What progress has been made? 

Please refer to the description for session 2 (above).

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Macroeconomic Strategies Project: Policy Analysis and ESCR Standards.

·         Using Budget Analysis to Implement the Principle of Maximum Available Resources: the Right to Health/Water

·         Budget Analysis as a Tool Against Gender-based Discrimination: a Rights-based Perspective.

DAY TWO

Sessions 4 and 5 will be devoted to analyze more in depth the obstacles and challenges faced by groups carrying out their work. An important part of this discussion will focus on what groups need to work successfully in the field of Budget Analysis and ESCR (resources, skills, methodologies, etc.). This analysis of challenges and difficulties will serve as the foundation to later decide on a concrete collaborative action plan.  Participants will break into smaller groups with facilitators to engage in deeper discussions by topic. 

Sub-topics will be dependent on the interests and challenges identified by participants, however, some possible sub-topics are below:

·         IFI and Macroeconomic Policies’ Impact on Government Budgets

·         Budget Advocacy—How to Present Your Findings for Maximum Impact

·         Tracking Expenditures and Human Rights—Relating the two at the Grassroots/Community Level

Please refer to the description for session 4 (above).

All groups will report conclusions and an open discussion will follow.  

 

Based on the discussion of the prior sessions and outreach done by ESCR-Net, participants will explore the possibility of building a common agenda for future collaborative action. Participants will consider in this session how to strategically foster and coordinate collective work alliances for the future and how to get people involved.

DAY THREE 

 

Site-visit and ESCR-Net General Assembly.

DAY  FOUR

We will continue here the discussion started on day 2. Please refer to the description for session 6 (above).

Continuation of ESCR-Net General Assembly.

V.  Corporate Accountability

This area of work aims to collectively advance its efforts in three inter-related areas: building ongoing advocacy for international standards on business and human rights; continuing to strengthen the resource and knowledge base of the Network; and actualizing the Working Group’s dedication to bringing affected communities and individuals, as well as grassroots groups into international debates on corporate accountability. During the International Strategy Meeting this will happen through a variety of activities including, workshops, strategy sessions and development of an action plan for future work.

DAY ONE 

 

The goal of this session is to provide interested participants a recap of the history of the Corporate Accountability Working Group and its current activities. This overview will cover the Working Group’s advocacy efforts at the UN for international standards and mechanisms as well as its related documentation, outreach and resource-creation activities. Follow-up actions to influence the UN on the issue of business and human rights will then be discussed. A preliminary evaluation will start on the Working Group’s activities so as to strengthen ongoing efforts.

A practical skills-based workshop of 3 parts will be conducted on how and where to seek redress against a company involved in human right abuses. Specific cases will be discussed in which groups brought their claims to various legal and quasi-legal mechanisms. Important thematic issues, such as indigenous, women’s and labor rights will also be highlighted in discussions of the various mechanisms. Each of the workshops will be open and interactive to stimulate mutual-learning.

Part I will be a general training session on basic fact-finding of companies and its financing sources, necessary evidentiary elements to build your case, decide which accountability mechanisms to pursue, and more.

Part II of the Corporate Accountability Workshop will concentrate on the challenges and opportunities in bringing cases directly against companies. The discussion will highlight various avenues, such as through corporate liability litigation and inter-governmental bodies.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Corporate Liability Litigation to Hold Corporations Accountable in the US and Other Jurisdictions

·         OECD National Contact Points

·         ILO Mechanisms to Enforce Labour Rights

·         ILO Mechanisms to Enforce Indigenous Rights

·         Avenues to Seek Redress within the UN

DAY TWO

Co-hosted with the Trade, Investment, Finance and Human Rights Initiative.

Part III of the Corporate Accountability Workshop will focus on sources and institutions of corporate finance, and how to bring cases before various global institutions which politically or financially back business operations, including a briefing on the workings of the reigning global financial infrastructure as well as specific strategies and mechanisms used so far to ensure that these institutions are consistent with human rights standards.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Introduction of the Reigning Global Financial Infrastructure

·         Preventing Human Rights Impacts of Global Finance

·         Seeking Redress for Corporate Abuse by Targeting Financial Institutions

Co-hosted with the Adjudication and ESCR and Trade, Investment, Finance and Human Rights Groups.

Refer to Session 5 of the Adjudication and ESCR agenda.                  

This session will provide the space to hold a strategic discussion on future work projects and to design a work plan for the ESCR-Net Corporate Accountability Working Group. Specifically, this session will discuss lessons from past challenges and gaps in the field, orienting future work to address these gaps, then in turn discussing future projects to arrive at an action plan for the years ahead.

DAY THREE

Site-visit and ESCR-Net General Assembly.

DAY FOUR

 

 Continuation of Session 6.

 

Continuation of ESCR-Net General Assembly.                                                                  

VI. Trade, Investment, Finance and Human Rights

The main aims of this area of work are three-fold: to share conceptual understanding, practical experiences and useful strategies of human rights work in this area; to build consensus on a common agenda of clear, deliberate and coordinated set of goals, strategies and actions; and to draw up a potential collective work alliance. This will happen through mutual-learning sessions, presentations on particular cases, as well as the facilitation of two skills-based workshops and a strategy session to collaboratively design the action plan moving forward.

DAY ONE 

 

This informative session will begin by sharing distinct experiences of local, regional and international work on trade, investment and finance from a human rights perspective, which will serve as a foundation to later combine our knowledge to begin later to discuss a concrete collaborative strategy/action plan coming out of Kenya. Groups will reflect on the obstacles and challenges, strengths and weaknesses of the human rights approach to trade, investment, finance and human rights. Each of these short informal presentations aims to kick-start an interactive roundtable discussion.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Short Introduction on Trade

·         Human Rights Advocacy from within the World Trade Organization

·         Human Rights Advocacy from without the WTO

·         Advocacy on TRIPS Agreements and the Right to Health

·         Trade agreements & Human Rights Advocacy

·         Trade Liberalization, Gender and Food Security

Part II will focus on ongoing human rights strategies targetting public and private project investment and finance flows, as well as ways to work together to strengthen them.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Short Introduction on Investment and Finance

·         Advocating for the Forgiving of Odious Foreign Debt: The Case of Norway

·         Human Rights Impact Assessments for Foreign Investment Projects

·         Human Rights Impacts of New Project Investment Trends in Africa

·         Seeking Redress for the Impacts of Public Financing

·         Documentation, Advocacy, and Alliance-building on Export Credit Agencies

Based on the morning’s discussions of work being carried out by groups around the world in this area, this session at the end of Day One will allow for an interactive roundtable discussion to explore common challenges, reflect on the obstacles and challenges, strengths and weaknesses of the human rights approach to trade, investment, finance and human rights, possibly concluding with a basic mapping of areas requiring more concerted collective action.

DAY TWO

Co-hosted with the Corporate Accountability Working Group. 

Refer to Session 4 of the Corporate Accountability Working Group agenda. 

Co-hosted with the Adjudication of ESCR and Corporate Accountability groups. 

Refer to Session 5 of the Adjudication of ESCR agenda.             

The final sessions will discuss the relevance of the shared experiences to building consensus on specific points of collaborative action moving ahead. Thus, it will aim at developing a common working agenda, draw up the structure of a collaborative platform for action, its objectives and design an action plan for the years ahead.

DAY THREE

Site-visit and ESCR-Net General Assembly meeting. 

 

DAY FOUR

Continuation of Session 6.

Continuation of ESCR-Net General Assembly.

VII. Human Right to Health

This area of work was highlighted as an area of interest for renewal and revitalization during the Strategy Meeting application process.  The Meeting will provide a forum to exchange updated information on the work being done on health as a human right and strategies being used to tackled health issues from a human rights perspective.  The meeting will offer members of the Network an opportunity to explore spaces for joint action and collaboration and formulate ESCR-Net’s direction and future projects for this area of work.

DAY ONE

In this first session, a short introduction will be given on the overall objectives of the set of sessions focusing on the right to health.  Given that this is a new area of work, it is proposed that an overview of the field be provided followed by an introduction to using a human rights framework to advance the right to health.  In addition, there will be an open discussion where participants will share the work they are doing to protect and promote the right to health.  The discussion will also enable participants to share their specific interest in learning more about the right to health and how to strengthen their work.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Overall objectives of the sessions on the Right to Health

·         Overview and Introduction: Health as a Human Right

Building on the introduction, this session takes as its focus the different ways that groups have advanced the right to health, highlighting new tools and methodologies that are being developed.  The session aims to provide a solid overview of the range of tools available to move from monitoring to implementation of the right to health.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         A New Approach to Monitoring

·         How to Develop and Monitor Effective Indicators

·         Litigation Strategies on the Human Right to Health

·         Advocacy on the Human Right to Health

In this session, the human rights framework will be applied to two critical global health problems, HIV/AIDS and maternal mortality, with the aim of showing how it changes both the analysis of the problem and the outcomes required. The targeted purpose is to show how a human rights approach can be applied concretely to HIV/Aids and maternal mortality – and make a difference in outcomes and in peoples’ lives.    

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):  

·         Fighting HIV/Aids from a Human Rights Perspective

·         A Human Rights Approach to Reducing Maternal Mortality

DAY TWO

The purpose of this session is to provide a briefing on the current state of access to medicine, gain insight into the key impediments, and to explore ways of strengthening access.  Country cases will be explored where groups have undertaken strategies to implement TRIPS flexibilities. In addition, a presentation on the newly developed Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies will open up space for groups to explore how to engage with the larger process.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Prioritizing the Human Right to Health over Economic Interests: the Brazilian Case

·         The Compulsory License Case in Thailand: Lessons Learnt

·         The Human Rights Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Companies 

 

This session will focus on the monitoring of one key element of the right to health: an effective, integrated, accessible, accountable and people-centered (instead of disease-centered) health system. This has been a top thematic priority for the work of the Former Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Paul Hunt, and his research team.  It raises important questions such as: How can we assess whether or not a health system is effective? How (or in which ways) is one to prioritize interventions in light of limited budgets? Is it possible to have universal indicators? 

To complement this overview of the broader issue of health systems, the Peoples Health Movement will present a tool they have developed for groups to perform a national assessment of the right to health and how it can be used to address their specific advocacy needs.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Health Care Systems: Operationalizing the Human Right to Health

·         National Assessment Tool: the Human Right to Health

Based on the discussion of the prior sessions and outreach done by ESCR-Net, participants will explore the possibility of building a common agenda for future collaborative action. Participants will consider in this session a specific set of joint actions to take up; how to strategically foster and coordinate collective work alliances for the future; and how to get groups involved.

DAY THREE

Site-visit and ESCR-Net General Assembly

DAY FOUR

­­­­­­       VIII. Women and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

This area of work was highlighted as an area of interest for renewal and revitalization during consultations leading to the Strategy Meeting.  The Meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of strategies and updated information on the development of ESCR related to women, and offer members of the Network an opportunity to collaboratively formulate the direction and projects for this area.

DAY ONE

In the first three sessions, the presentations will focus on recent developments on women and ESCR at the national, regional and international level. Groups will share the work they are doing in the field; reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the women and ESCR movement in their region/field; and discuss the challenges they face to accomplish this work as well as share the strategies they have used to overcome them.  

Session 1 will focus on relevant litigation and jurisprudence from domestic courts, campaigns and other significant activities.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         History of the Women’s Working Group of ESCR-Net: Goals and Expectations of the Meeting

·         Peru’s Experience of Tribunals on Women’s ESCR Organized by Civil Society

·         Women and ESCR in South Asia

·         Women and ESCR in Nigeria

·         Women as Domestic Employees in Trinidad and Tobago

·         Women and ESCR in South Africa

Session 2 will focus on developments at the regional level, namely, the Inter-american System of Human Rights, the African System of Human Rights and the European System of Human Rights.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women.

·         Jurisprudence of Women and ESCR in the Inter-American System.

·         Women and ESCR in the European Human Rights System

·         Development of Women and ESCR at the regional level in Asia

Session 3 will aim at exploring developments at the international level, focusing on case law and reports from different international human rights bodies, particularly CEDAW, CESCR, CERD and the HRC.

Presentations (To Be Confirmed):

·         CEDAW: Reflections on Implementation 

·         Campaign for an Optional Protocol on ESCR

·         Development of the Optional Protocols to CEDAW and ICESCR

·         Climate Change and the Impact on Women and ESCR

DAY TWO

Co-hosted with the Adjudication and ESCR Working Group.

Refer to session 4 of the Adjudication of ESCR agenda.

This session aims to provide the space to generate a discussion on the barriers, omissions and challenges in the work to date on women’s ESCR, as well as to reflect whether and how collaborative activities could assist in overcoming these difficulties and addressing the challenges. 

 

Building on the initial work that has been done by this group in the past the aim of this session is to consolidate a common working agenda or action plan for the years ahead.

DAY THREE 

 

Site-visits and ESCR-Net General Assembly. 

 

DAY FOUR

Continuation of Session 6.

Continuation of ESCR-Net General Assembly.

The ESCR-Net Secretariat would like to thank the working group members below for their support preparing and commenting on the working session agendas for the International Strategy Meeting. 

ADJUDICATION of ESCR:

·   Aoife Nolan, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Switzerland

·   Bret Thiele, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), USA

·   Bruce Porter, Social Rights Advocacy Center (SRAC), Canada

·   Carolina Fairstein, Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), Argentina

·   Malcolm Langford, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Norway

OPTIONAL PROTOCOL to ICESCR:

Steering Committee of the NGO Coalition for an Optional Protocol:

·          Amnesty International (AI), UK 

·          Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE), Geneva

·          Community Law Centre, South Africa

·          FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN), Germany

·          International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Geneva

·          International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH), France

·          International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net), USA

·          International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia-Pacific (IWRAW Asia-Pacific), Malaysia

·          Inter-American Platform of Human Rights, Democracy and Development (PIDHDD), Paraguay

·          Social Rights Advocacy Centre (SRAC), Canada

 BUDGET ANALYSIS and ESCR:

·   Ann Blyberg, International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP), Institute for International Education, USA

·   Gabriel Lara, FUNDAR, Mexico

·   Helena Hofbauer, International Budget Project, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Mexico

·   Warren Krafchik, International Budget Project, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, USA

·   Shaamela Cassiem, International Budget Project, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, South Africa

·   Vivek Ramkumar, International Budget Project, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, USA

CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY:

·   Tricia Feeney, Rights and Accountability In Democracy (RAID), United Kingdom

·   Daniel Taillant, Centro de Derechos Humanos y Ambiente (CEDHA), Argentina

·   Joji Cariño, TEBTEBBA Foundation (Indigenous Peoples' Centre for Policy Research and Education), Philippines/United Kingdom

·   Nadia Johnson, Women’s Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), United States

·   Maria Silvia Emanuelli, Coalición Internacional para el Hábitat, Oficina para América Latina (HIC-AL), Mexico

·   Lisa Misol, Human Rights Watch, USA

·   Elin Wrzoncki, International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), France

·   Carol Samdup, Rights and Democracy, Canada

·   Lillian Manzella, Human Rights Consultant, USA/Italy

TRADE, INVESTMENT, FINANCE and HUMAN RIGHTS:

·   Aldo Caliari, Center of Concern, United States

·   Angel Bonilla, Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales (CDES), Ecuador

·   Anni Mitin, Southeast Asian Council for Food Security and Fair Trade (SEACON), Malaysia

·   Areli Sandoval, DECA Equipo Pueblo, México

·   Caroline Dommen, 3D Trade - Human Rights - Equitable Economy, Switzerland

·   Hossam Bahgat, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Egypt

·   Carin Smaller, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), United States

·   Carol Samdup, Rights & Democracy, Canada

·   Elin Wrzoncki, International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), France

·   Carolina Farstein, Center for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), Argentina

·   Daria Caliguire, Human Rights Consultant, USA

HUMAN RIGHT to HEALTH:

·   Daria Caliguire, Human Rights Consultant

·   Alicia Yamin, Harvard School of Public Health

·   Laura Turiano, Claudio Schuftan and Caroline Antonia Muchaneta Mubaira, People’s Health Movement

·   Gunilla Backman, Helen Potts, Rajat Khosla and Paul Hunt, Office of the Former Rapporteur on the Right to Health, University of Essex

·   Daniella Ikawa, ESCR-Net Consultant, USA and Conectas, Brazil

WOMEN and ESCR:

·   Shanthi Dairiam, International Women's Rights Action Watch, Asia Pacific, Malaysia

·   Priti Darooka, Program on Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, India

·   Leilani Farha, Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation, Canada

·   María Ysabel Cedano, Estudio Para La Defensa De Los Derechos De La Mujer (DEMUS), Perú

·   Patricia Ramírez, Instituto de Estudios Regionales INER – Universidad de Antioquia, Integrante de la Ruta Pacífica de las Mujeres, Colombia

·   Marianne Mollman, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch, USA

·   María Eugenia Sánchez, Coordinator of ESCR Tribunal, Colombia

·   Lorenza Laynes, Asociación Q’ukumatz, Guatemala

·   Chibogu Obinwa, Senior Programme Officer, BAOBAB for Women's Human Rights, Nigeria