Context

The current global economic crisis provides stark evidence that the economic policies of the last 3 decades have not been working.

The devastation that the crisis has wrought on the most vulnerable households in the Global North and Global South is a reminder that the formulation of economic policy and the realization of human rights (economic, social, political, civil and cultural) have for too long been divorced from one another. Economic policy and human rights do not have to be opposing forces, but can exist symbiotically.

Macroeconomic policies affect the operation of the economy as a whole, shaping the availability and distribution of resources. Within this context, fiscal and monetary policies are key.

Definition

• Fiscal policy refers to both public revenue and public expenditure, and the relationships between them as expressed in the government budget.
• Monetary policy includes policies on interest and exchange rates and the money supply, as well as the regulation of the financial sector.
• Macroeconomic policies are implemented using instruments such as taxation, government spending, and control over the supply of money and credit.

These policies affect key prices such as interest and exchange rates that directly influence, among other things, the level of employment, access to affordable credit, and the housing market.

Applying a human rights framework to macroeconomic policy allows States to better comply with their obligation to respect, protect, and fulfill economic and social rights. Human rights are internationally agreed-upon universal standards. These legal norms are articulated in United Nations treaties including, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

Article 1 of the UDHR states that, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”

Although the UDHR was written about six decades ago its relevance is enduring. Many of the ideas address concerns and critical issues that people continue to face globally. Issues regarding inhuman punishment (Art. 5), discrimination (Art. 7), property ownership (Art. 17), equal pay for equal work (Art. 23/2), and access to education (Art. 26/1) are pertinent matters in countries South and North of the equator.

More specifically, States have an obligation under international law to respect, protect and fulfill human rights, including the economic and social rights of people within their jurisdiction. This is particularly relevant now given the financial crisis. In the U.S., regulation is skewed in favor of certain interests. The failure to extend government’s supervisory role in the context of social and economic change is a failure with regard to the obligation to protect human rights.

Feminist perspective

States should abide by key human rights principles to achieve economic and social rights. Some of the principles have potentially important implications for governance of financial institutions and markets, yet these possibilities have been underexplored.

Economic and social rights have a concrete institutional and legal grounding. Global declarations, international treaties, covenants, and, in a number of cases, national constitutions have incorporated aspects of the economic and social rights framework—providing an institutional infrastructure in national and international law.

Some have suggested that a consideration of global justice may not be a useful pursuit because of the institutional complexities involved. However, this does not get around that fact that global institutions already have an impact on social justice, both positive and negative.

It is useful to tease out the implications that elements of alternative frameworks have for economic governance, specifically those supported by existing institutions. Economic and social rights represent one such concrete framework. The framework is an evolving one, and ongoing discussion and deliberation is necessary to address underdeveloped areas and potential deficiencies.

Learn more about this proposition

• How to Apply a Human Rights Framework to Macroeconomic Strategies by Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL)

This section is based on CWGL’s blog “Applying a Human Rights Framework to Macroeconomic Policies” (2012).

En síntesis, ¡sí! En este momento AWID está trabajando con un Comité de Accesibilidad, para garantizar que el Foro sea lo más accesible posible. También estamos realizando una auditoría de accesibilidad en la sede del Foro, los hoteles circundantes y el transporte. Antes de que se abra el proceso de inscripción incluiremos en esta sección información detallada sobre la accesibilidad del Foro de AWID. Mientras tanto, si tienes alguna pregunta por favor contáctanos.

2009 UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impacts on Development

• The 2009 conference was an outcome of the 2008 Doha conference. The Doha Declaration had mandated that the United Nations hold a conference, to be organized by the President of the General Assembly, on the world financial and economic crisis and its impact on development.
• During the conference women’s groups, through the WWG, highlighted the impact of the global financial crisis on vulnerable groups. In their statement to the members, the WWG proposed necessary actions to be taken by member states to redress the effects of the crisis to women. They stated that other social groups affected by the crisis are key to a response that is harmonized with international standards and commitments to gender equality, women’s rights and human rights and empowerment. 

Anti-rights actors have had a substantive impact on our human rights framework and the progressive interpretation of human rights standards, especially rights related to gender and sexuality.

When it comes to the impact of conservative actors in international policy spaces, the overall picture today is of stasis and regressions.

We have witnessed the watering down of existing agreements and commitment; deadlock in negotiations; sustained undermining of UN agencies, treaty review bodies and Special Procedures; and success in pushing through regressive language in international human rights documents.

Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)

The CSW, held annually in March, has long been one of the most contested sites in the UN system. In March 2015, conservative efforts set the tone before events or negotiations even began; the outcome document of the Commission was a weak Declaration negotiated before any women’s rights activists even arrived on the ground.

At 2016’s CSW, the new Youth Caucus was infiltrated by large numbers of vocal anti-abortion and anti-SRHR actors, who shouted down progressive youth organizations. Again, intensive negotiations resulted in a lacklustre text, which included regressive language on ‘the family.’

Precisely when addressing women’s human rights is of urgent importance, the CSW has been rendered a depoliticized and weakened space. Using it to advance rights has become harder and harder since progressives’ energy is taken up trying to hold the ground against conservative backlash.

Human Rights Council (HRC)

As the intergovernmental body responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights around the globe, the HRC is a key entry point for conservative actors. In recent years, this mechanism has been the scene for a number of damaging anti-human rights moves.

In conversation with other anti-rights actors, one strategy of conservative states, and blocs of states, is to aggressively negotiate out positive language and to introduce hostile amendments to resolutions, most often resolutions focusing on rights related to gender and sexuality.

To take one example, during the June 2016 session of the HRC, opposition was mounted towards a resolution on discrimination against women by the member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and allies. During contentious negotiations, multiple provisions were removed, including women’s and girls’ right to have control over their sexuality, sexual and reproductive health, and reproductive rights; and the need to repeal laws which perpetuate the patriarchal oppression of women and girls in families, and those criminalizing adultery or pardoning marital rape.

The HRC has also been the site of pernicious conservative initiatives to co-opt human rights norms and enact conservative “human rights” language, such as that of the Russia-led “traditional values” resolutions, and more recently the “Protection of the Family” agenda.

Human Rights Committee

In 2015, moving their sights to another front, a number of religious right organizations began to target the Human Rights Committee, the treaty monitoring body for the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a pivotal human rights instrument.

Anti-human rights groups mobilized in hopes of cementing their anti-abortion rhetoric into the treaty.

When the Committee announced it was drafting a new authoritative interpretation of the right to life, over 30 conservative non-state actors sent in written submissions, advocating their misleading discourse on ‘right to life’ - that life begins at conception and that abortion is a violation of the right - be incorporated in the Committee’s interpretation of article 6.

Conservative groups targeting the Human Rights Committee was a shift considering that historically anti-human rights actors have repeatedly attempted to undermine and invalidate the essential work of the treaty monitoring bodies, including the Human Rights Committee.

SDG negotiations and Agenda 2030

Anti-human rights actors were involved in lobbying towards the development of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, focusing again on rights relating to gender and sexuality. These efforts had limited traction in their attempts to embed regressive language in Agenda 2030.

However, after successfully pushing back against progressive language in the final text, conservative actors then pivoted to another strategy. In an attempt to evade state accountability and undermine the universality of rights, several states have repeatedly made reservations to the Goals.

On behalf of the African Group, Senegal claimed that African states would only “implement the goals in line with the cultural and religious values of its countries.”

The Holy See also made a number of reservations, stating it was “confident that the related pledge ‘no one will be left behind’ would be read” as meaning “the right to life of the person, from conception until natural death.”

Saudi Arabia went one step further, declaring that the country would not follow any international rules relating to the SDGs that reference sexual orientation or gender identity, describing them as running “counter to Islamic law.”

General Assembly (GA)

Anti-rights actors have made increasing headway at the UN General Assembly (GA).  Most recently, during the 71^st session in 2016, the GA was the scene of feverish anti-rights organizing in opposition to the new mandate created by the Human Rights Council resolution on sexual orientation and gender identity in June 2016: the Independent Expert on SOGI. Four separate attempts were made to undercut the mandate in GA spaces.

One approach was to introduce a hostile resolution at the Third Committee^[1], led by the African Group, which in essence aimed to indefinitely defer the new mandate. While this approach was not successful, such an attempt in the GA to retroactively block the creation of a mandate brought forward by the Human Rights Council represented a new and troubling tactic - anti-right actors are now working to directly undermine the HRC’s authority respective to the General Assembly.

Another approach targeted the Fifth Committee (responsible for administration and budgetary matters) as an entry point to attack the mandate. In an unprecedented move a number of States attempted (again, unsuccessfully) to block the funding of UN human rights experts, including the new IE on SOGI^[2],.

While these multiple efforts were unsuccessful in blocking the creation and continuation of the new mandate, the significant support they received, the novel strategizing employed, and the strong alliances built along regional lines through negotiations point to difficulties ahead.

[1] The Third Committee of the GA deals with agenda items relating to a range of social, humanitarian affairs, and human rights issues.  Each year it discusses and issues resolutions on issues including the advancement of women, the protection of children, family, and youth.

[2] While UN Special Procedures experts (i.e. Special Rapporteurs, Working Group members and Independent Experts) work pro bono, some funds are generally allocated to facilitate country visits on the invitation of the national government, and support staff.

Other Chapters

• Key opposition actors
• Key opposition discourses
• Key opposition strategies and tactics

Read the full report

Other Chapters

• Key opposition actors
• Key opposition discourses
• Key opposition strategies and tactics

Read the full report

A Collective Love Print

“If we can inherit trauma, can we inherit an imprint related to love?”

Read more

Primera sesión para redactar el Documento Final de la tercera Conferencia Internacional sobre la Financiación para el Desarrollo

• En enero de 2015, en la sede de la ONU en Nueva York comenzó una serie de sesiones para redactar el Documento Final.
• Antes de la primera sesión, los facilitadores del proceso preparatorio de la Conferencia de Adís Abeba presentaron los “Elementos” para el llamado “Borrador Cero” del documento, que constituyeron la base para las negociaciones entre gobiernos en torno al Documento Final.
• En esas sesiones, las organizaciones por los derechos de las mujeres subrayaron la necesidad de que, en los procesos post-2015, la FpD y los medios para su implementación se traten por separado, ya que la FpD brinda a los Estados una oportunidad única de ocuparse de las causas estructurales de la desigualdad.

AWID en los medios

Compilación de noticias sobre la organización y/o el trabajo de AWID

• Presentan disco con canciones para reír y reivindicar. La Nación, may 2018
• Día Internacional de la Mujer: la realidad de las mujeres latinoamericanas. La opinión digital, mar 2018
• Para fortalecer la resistencia global, hay que dar recursos a lxs jóvenes feministas. Open Global Rights, nov 2017
• Llamado mundial a las mujeres frente a la reunión de la OMC. Bilaterals, nov 2017
• Tejiendo la resistencia a través de la acción: Las estrategias de las Defensoras de Derechos Humanos contra las industrias extractivas. Movimiento 4, sep 2017
• Romani: banca internacional habilita a que se “lave olímpicamente” el dinero del narcotráfico. La diaria, ago 2017
• Global: Nueva guía y reporte sobre acciones de defensoras de derechos humanos ante proyectos extractivos empresariales. Business and human rights resources, ago 2017
• Cumbre sobre el Mundo del Trabajo: Un futuro mejor para las mujeres en el trabajo. Organización Internacional del Trabajo, jun 2017
• “Los Movimientos Importan”, arte visual colectivo en favor de las mujeres. El heraldo de Saltillo, mar 2017
• Violencia de género contra las mujeres en los medios, y la necesidad del activismo cotidiano. IFEX, dic 2016
• Ahora más que nunca. La razón, sep 2016
• Brasil: Cerró ayer la mayor conferencia sobre derechos de las mujeres. Fondo indígena, sep 2016
• Alerta Máxima Feminista ante involución de derechos de las y los migrantes en la 46 ª Conferencia de Población y Desarrollo. Calala, may 2015
• Todas las personas podemos ser defensoras de los Derechos Humanos de las mujeres. ALC noticias, ene 2015

Notas de prensa

Notas de prensa, dosieres y kits

Kits de social media

• Un Tributo a lxs defensorxs de derechos humanos que ya no están con nosotrxs
• Serie de arte visual digital «Los Movimientos Importan»
• Foro de AWID 2016

Contacto para medios

Email de contacto

+1 416 594 3773

“ابدعي، قاومي، غيّري”: جولة في المهرجان

مع استمرار الرأسمالية الأبوية الغيريّة في دَفعِنا نحو الاستهلاكية والرضوخ، نجد نضالاتنا تُعزَل وتُفصَل عن بعضها الآخر من خلال الحدود المادّية والحدود الافتراضية على حدٍّ سواء.

اقرأ أكثر

Forum des femmes sur le financement de l’égalité des genres

• Le Forum a eu lieu le 10 juillet 2015, à Addis-Abeba. Il a rassemblait des féministes, des femmes venant de la base, des défenseuses de l’égalité des genres, des universitaires et des représentant-e-s des organisations/réseaux de défense des droits des femmes. Un certain nombre de représentant-e-s de l’ONU et d’autres responsables politiques ont été invité-e-s à apporter leur contribution.
• Les objectifs du Forum des femmes sont les suivants : échanger des informations sur l’état d’avancement des dernières négociations relatives au FdD, analyser conjointement le panorama et le suivi du FdD, adopter une position commune concernant la défense des droits des femmes et, enfin, élaborer des stratégies visant à permettre aux organisations de femmes de contribuer de manière significative et considérable à la Conférence d’Addis Abeba sur le FdD, et ce dans une perspective féministe.
• Le Forum des femmes est organisé par le WWG on FfD, en collaboration avec FEMNET, le Fonds de développement pour la femme africaine (AWDF) et la Post-2015 Women's Coalition. Il bénéficie également du soutien de l’ONU Femmes.

Forum des OSC sur le FdD

• Le Forum des OSC sur le FdD a eu lieu à Addis-Abeba les 11 et 12 juillet 2015. Ses objectifs sont les suivants : informer les OSC participantes de l’état d’avancement des processus officiels et coordonner la participation de la société civile pendant la troisième Conférence sur le FdD ; élaborer une Déclaration collective des OSC et les messages des OSC à destination des participant-e-s aux tables rondes de la Conférence sur le FdD, mettre en place des manifestations parallèles organisées par le groupe des OSC sur le FdD et tout autre événement qui pourrait se présenter ;  enfin, planifier et organiser les futurs domaines d’engagement des OSC dans le secteur du financement du développement, au-delà de la troisième Conférence sur le FdD.
• Pour plus d’informations, vous pouvez consulter le site internet du Groupe des OSC sur le FdD (en anglais) ou prendre contact avec le Groupe de coordination des OSC pour Addis-Abeba (addiscoordinatinggroup@gmail.com).

La troisième Conférence internationale des Nations Unies sur le financement du développement

• La troisième Conférence internationale des Nations Unies sur le financement du développement a eu lieu à Addis-Abeba, en Éthiopie, du 13 au 16 juillet 2015. Ses objectifs principaux étaient les suivants : évaluer les progrès accomplis dans la mise en œuvre du Consensus de Monterrey (2002) et de la Déclaration de Doha (2008) ; traiter des problèmes nouveaux et de ceux qu’il faudra anticiper, y compris dans le contexte de récentes initiatives multilatérales visant à encourager la coopération internationale pour le développement et en tenant compte des éléments suivants : l’évolution actuelle du cadre de la coopération pour le développement, les interrelations entre les différentes sources de financement du développement, les synergies existantes entre les différents objectifs de financement propres aux trois dimensions du développement durable (économique, sociale et environnementale) et la nécessité de soutenir le programme de développement des Nations Unies au-delà de 2015, et, enfin, la redynamisation et le renforcement du processus de suivi relatif au financement du développement.
• Le Programme d’action d’Addis-Abeba a été adopté le 15 juillet 2015 par les chefs d’États et de gouvernements ainsi que les hauts-représentants de l’ONU.
• Cependant, les pays en développement, les OSC et plus particulièrement les organisations de femmes, estiment que le Programme d’action d’Addis-Abeba n’a pas atteint son objectif. Le Groupe de Femmes sur le Financement du Développement a exprimé une vive déception et exigé des changements structurels sur le plan de la gouvernance économique mondiale et sur celui de l’architecture du développement. Consultez leur réaction au document final. Des centaines d’organisations et de réseaux de la société civile du monde entier ont aussi manifesté de vives préoccupations et de sérieuses réserves. Lisez leurs réactions au document final.

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