First, I would like to extend fraternal greetings to participants and to thank Terre des Hommes for their invitation to participate in the present training session, which gives us the opportunity to analyse and discuss mechanisms for the presentation of shadow reports before the United Nations (UN) Committee on ESC Rights. We can share on limitations and successes experienced and on the possibilities offered by this mechanism, based on concrete experiences of Guatemalan human rights (...)

This international programme of training on Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) Rights enforceability approaches brings together Non-Governmental Organizations from Benin, Cameroon, France, India, Mali, Senegal, Togo and the Philippines. We decided to pool our experiences, notably via this website, in order to mutually build our capacities and share them with other stakeholders. Partners: Aoudaghost Network : Senegal Unit Benin Unit Togo Unit Malian Unit and the Malian ESC rights (...)

This document compiles exchanges of the first international training session which took place in Bamako, April 14th-17th, 2008. The themes addressed were: the various steps of mobilising civil society on ESC rights (Setting up ESC rights platforms, Indicator setting with participative enquiries and collection of data, Lobbying, advocacy), the participation in the elaboration and modification of laws integrating ESC rights and the drafting of shadow reports.

The second international seminar of this programme took place in Bangalore (India) in June 2009. We discussed the thematics : Organizing civil society into a broad social movement, Monitoring the UN Committee on ESC rights’ recommendations, Monitoring administrative and judicial practices and Mobilizing for the ratification of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

In various political situations, people tried to form platforms or broad-based movements and agree on short-, medium-, or long-term objectives in terms of articulation in order to participate in seizing the political power.

A clear example of this is what happened in 2006-2007 with the creation of a broad-based left-wing movement named MAIZ (Movimiento Amplio de Izquierdas), a process which resulted from the initiative of various social groups and political parties. The purpose was to contribute collectively and on a wide scale to the formation of a struggle front with a left-wing perspective which would go beyond eminently short-term aspects (e.g. elections) and progressively grow stronger to become a long-term instrument of change of the political articulation.

In order to draft its report for submission to the Committee on ESC rights, the State performs a global analysis and synthesis of the different rights according to a given context and temporality; however, when it comes to monitoring the recommendations, you may want to deal with each right individually for a more dynamic and thorough analysis.

A video realized with the support of Terre des Hommes France, by the Grupo Sur and other european networks after the conference “Aid to the private sector: promoting responsible investments? Latin America as a testing ground” organized on 21 March, at the European Parliament.

Read the Solidarity statement from Grupo Sur, APRODEV, CIFCA and CIDSE : Solidarity Statement

The EU is on the brink of ratifying some trade agreements with Central America countries, Colombia and Peru, which are intended to increase EU importations of basic products such as raw materials devoted to biofuels production. These agreements will aggravate local pressure on natural resources in those countries, as societal and environment impact studies ordered by the European Commission point out. The European Council will propose these draft agreements to the European Parliament to be (...)

Social cohesion is mentioned as a priority in co-operation to development between the UE and Latin America, but the fact that social cohesion is linked to other policies like trading, investment and finance is not recognized. The question is whether the EU and the governments of Latin America are willing to promote sustainable development where citizens are included, encouraging the participation of civil society organisations and social movements. The social organisations of Latin America (...)

The aim of this group is to control how the municipality and the state institutions invest the funds. José Luis Sigüil, from the Kim Tzuk Pop Movement, stated that the monitoring center is comprised of his organization, the Economic Bureau, the Management Group, the Occident’s Roundtable and the Municipal Development Councils. He explained that the idea of the group setup originated after the disasters caused by the storm Agatha with the intention to monitor public money spending. (...)

Two years after taking office as UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to food, Prof. Olivier De Schutter presents a review of the progress made by a number of countries in implementing the human right to food at national level.

NGOs welcome historic step forward for the protection of all human rights.

In the context of the Peoples Summits, the Bi-regional network Europe-Latin America and the Caribbean Enlazando Alternativas, has organised two Tribunal Sessions in the framework of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) on “Neoliberal Policies and European Transnational Corporations (TNCs) in Latin America and the Caribbean”.

These sessions exposed the violations of human rights, labour rights and environmental standards committed by more than 25 multinational companies based in the European Union and their subsidiaries (including Repsol YPF, Unión Fenosa, Suez, Unilever, Ence, Botnia, Shell and European banks such as BBVA and ABN-AMRO) in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The trade agreements between the EU, Central America, Colombia and Peru have to be ratified by the parliaments of the 27 Members states of the European Union. After years of discussion on the relevance and impact of these trade agreements, attention is turning to a vital natural resource: WATER. If any of these trade agreements are ratified, intensive agriculture and industrial projects developed in Latin America will have a major impact on communities access and right to this natural (...)