Equality and Non-discrimination

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Spain’s austerity measures criticized in UN human rights review

A newly-published CESR factsheet illustrates the role Spain’s fiscal austerity policies have played in driving poverty and inequality in the country

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Liliane Gröninger v. Germany (Communication No. 2/2010)

Liliane Gröninger presented the communication before the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on behalf of herself, her husband and her son, Erhard Gröninger, a person with disabilities.   Mrs. Gröninger argues Germany violated Article 3 (General principles), Article 4 (General obligations), Article 8 (Awareness –raising) and Article 27 (Work and employment) of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (The Convention), through legislation that failed to promote Mr. Gröninger participation in the labor marker.

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Case of the Indigenous Community Xákmok Kásek v. Paraguay

The Xákmok Kásek indigenous community, who has originally lived in the Paraguayan Chaco area, filed a petition before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights requesting acknowledgement of their traditional territory. Paraguay sold and split up the land without taking into consideration the indigenous population. The Salazar ranch was founded in the land that had been the home of the Xákmok Kásek community for years.  The community’s ability to survive and to develop its way of life was restricted, and the State failed to fulfill its duty to guarantee the community’s territorial rights.

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H.C. 6698/95, Aadel Ka'adan v. Israel Lands Administration, 54(1) P.D. 258

The petitioners are an Israeli Arab couple who wanted to build their house in the settlement of Katsir in Israel. Their request was rejected as they were Arabs and as the lands on which the settlement of Katzir was built were designed exclusively for Jews. Indeed, these lands were allocated by the State of Israel to the Jewish Agency for Israel which in turn transferred it to an agency that only sold plots to Jews. The petitioner claimed that the policy according to which settlements are established exclusively for Jews violates the principle of equality.

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South Africa: Stop the murders, detentions and threats against shack dwellers

On 10 October, 2013, ESCR-Net sent an Urgent Action appeal in response to the recent murders, arbitrary detentions, intimidation and threats against leaders of the shack-dweller movement and ESCR-Net member, Abahlali baseMjondolo and called on the Government of South Africa to uphold its human rights obligations.

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European Roma Rights Centre v. Portugal (Complaint No. 61/2010)

The Committee analyzed three issues regarding the right of Roma to housing in Portugal: the “precarious and difficult housing conditions for a large part of the Roma community”; “the high number of Roma families that live in segregated settings”; and “the inadequacy of re-housing programmes for the Roma community in terms of their family composition, cultural habits and ways of life”.

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Constitutional Ruling C-741/03

In 2002/2003, as the city of Bogota began the process of privatizing its waste collection services, recycling organizations in Bogota attempted to participate in a bidding process to compete for a waste collection and transportation contracts with the city. The recyclers were de jure precluded from competing for these contracts in big cities because they were not equity-owned, “share held corporations” as required by the law for public procurement, but rather, non-profit cooperatives of informal working poor.

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Constitutional Human Rights Ruling T-724/03

In Bogota, recyclable materials have traditionally been collected and sold by individuals and families organized into recycling associations. Recyclers are among the poorest, most marginalized members of society.

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Colombia Constitutional Court T-291/09

Recycling activities in Colombia have traditionally been carried out by extremely poor and marginalized sectors of society, who collect materials from landfills or inorganic waste from the streets to transport and sell them as recyclable material to intermediary informal warehouses of the national and multinational industry from refuse deposited on the street and sell it to warehouses for modest sums.

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Ramakant Rai v. Union of India, W.P ( C) No 209 of 2003

The petition in this public interest litigation (PIL) case cited data from the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Maharashtra, regarding government practices regarding female sterilization, which lacked counseling or informed consent, lacked pre- and post-operative care, and included unhygienic and un-anesthetized operating conditions, sterilization of minors, coercion and cruelty.  The PIL requested the Court to direct the state governments to comply with the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Guidelines on Standards of Female Sterilization, enacted in October 1999 (“the Guidelines”).

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