News

Ahead of upcoming intersessional meetings in Geneva in March 2022, ESCR-Net members have adopted a...

In the face of the pandemic, women in all their diversity – in the unions and factories, in farms and indigenous communities, in urban poor centres, in structured organisations or informal movements – continued to mobilise and put themselves at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. While continuing their ongoing, and the  struggle against the deepening political and socio-economic crises inherent to a patriarchal, colonial, racist and imperialist system.

Members of the Working Group on Women and Economic, Social and Cultural Rights came together during a strategic meeting on women and work (September 28, 29 & 30) which aimed to identify key priorities for the years to come. For the occasion, an ad hoc committee was set up to guide the...

ESCR-Net is happy to announce that a new board has been elected for the period 2022 – 2024. The elections ran from 17 November to 17 December 2021, featured 25 candidates and elicited 125 votes from the network’s organizational members, resulting in the re-election of:

  • Binota Moy
  • ...

Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) are international agreements for the protection of intellectual property monopolies (including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets etc.) monitored by the World Trade Organization (WTO). TRIPS obligates member states to...

Nearly 200 ESCR-Net members and allies joined together to amplify the voices of our communities who have been most affected by the inequalities exacerbated by the WTO’s refusal to pass a comprehensive waiver on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement on COVID-19 vaccines and therapies.  

On 6 December 2021, ESCR-Net sent a collective letter to the South African authorities calling on them to stop the ongoing attacks on the eKhenana Commune in Durban, South Africa.

Throughout 2021, at least ten Abahlali basemjondolo leaders from the eKhenana Commune have been criminalized...

The pandemic has exposed not only the failures of the current global economic order dominated by the system of capitalism, of which tax havens and tax abuse disguised as tax minimisation strategies and wealth or asset management are a major component, but also widened the pre-existing socio-economic inequalities between rich and poor countries even further. The alarming revenue gaps plaguing countries in the global South is more than just numbers. They are indicative of the urgently needed investment in public services and provisioning of those services to realizing the rights of the most vulnerable communities.

On 20 October 2021, ESCR-Net sent a collective letter to the Palestinian authorities expressing our profound concern regarding recent crackdowns on civil society including the killing of political activist Nizar Banat and the repression of subsequent protests.

You can read the full...

Human rights lawyers have threatened legal action against the German, Norwegian, and Canadian governments today for obstructing global efforts to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines and other healthcare technologies. 

The move comes as state delegates from around the...