We live in a world that is characterised by great wealth, yet has the highest levels of inequality since the 1920s. Millions of people continue to live in extreme poverty, hunger and hopelessness. Over 1.2 billion people, one out of every six human beings, goes hungry every day, unable to afford even the basic minimum of daily calories to ensure a healthy, productive and dignified human life. The pledge of freedom from want, as well as freedom from fear in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is far from being realized.
CESR international advocacy seeks to strengthen the recognition, enforcement and enjoyment of economic and social rights around the globe. We focus on addressing the persistent challenges the human rights movement currently faces in securing accountability for economic and social rights. While huge strides have been made in proving the justiciability of economic and social rights and instituting new mechanisms of accountability at both the international and national levels, actual enforcement of these rights remains weak and ineffective. States continue to make economic and social policy with little heed to their ESC rights obligations.
CESR´s work seeks to contribute to the use and strengthening of international mechanisms for human rights accountability, including the Optional Protocol to the International covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). CESR also challenges the obstacles which prevent progressive legal decisions and norms from being implemented in practice and translated into policy changes. Part of our work aims to strengthen the capacity of human rights and social justice activists to hold governments and other international actors accountable for violations of economic, social and cultural rights in specific settings.