Presentation of Manuel Canto from REMISOC during the third international training session on the Economical, Social and Cultural rights
Dakar, 20- 26 September 2010

This guidebook brings together the field experience of Terre des Hommes France’s old or recent partners such as Guamina, as part of the Malian ESC Rights Platform, Convergencia de Organismos Civiles (Mexico), FASE (Brazil), and PhilRights (Philippines) in drafting a shadow report for presentation to the UN Committee on ESC rights.

the Mexican civil society draft shadow reports on ESC rights since 1993.

In 2005, Mexico was late in presenting progress made in the submission of the official report to the Committee on ESC rights.

Organisations that were members of three networks decided to coordinate their efforts in the resumption of the elaboration of the report as an ENFORCEABILITY STRATEGY.

Successive steps of the presentation of the shadow report : Elaboration Process, Monitoring of the drafting of the official report, Link with multiple players, Presentation in the mass media, Participation in the pre-session, Monitoring of the presentation of the Mexican government, Circulation of the report and information of public opinion, Evaluation

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 (...)

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.

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 (...)

This guide was completed within the framework of the programme for the exchange of experiences on economic, social and cultural rights enforceability approaches coordinated by Terre des Hommes France. It is based on stakeholders’ experiences with various practices, cultures and backgrounds in countries such as the Philippines, India, Brazil, Cameroon, Mexico and Senegal.

MEXICO CITY (21 June 2011) - "Although 7 out of 10 Mexican adults are overweight or obese, costing the country 0.5 per cent of its GDP, the agricultural and trade policies are still not aligned towards the need to support access to balanced diets," Olivier De Schutter said* on the last day of his official mission to Mexico. “The right to food will soon be recognized in the Constitution, an important achievement that I applaud. The next step is to adopt a national strategy for the realization of the right to food which can address the twin challenges of obesity and food poverty by improving consistency across the different policy areas that affect this right."

This document was drafted within the framework of the economic, social and cultural rights methods exchange programme (“ESC Rights Action”) lead by Terre des Hommes France. It deals with methods to impact public policies followed by stakeholders with various practices, cultures and experiences.

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.

This third session ends the cycle of training over three years dedicated to the exchange of experiences to enforce ESC rights.

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 (...)