MWG members will organize a series of online discussions open to all members of ESCR-Net to exchange and learn about key issues and methodologies for monitoring ESCR. Some of the themes to be explored in the next few months include ‘using data for advocacy and campaigning’, ‘designing a community-led monitoring strategy’ and ‘community-led data collection and analysis.’

Next Steps

More detailed information about these three online discussions will be shared soon, however at this stage we invite you to contribute to these upcoming discussions by:

• sharing examples from you work about how you use data and monitoring, or
• asking questions about challenges you face in monitoring ESCR, e.g. designing a monitoring or documentation strategy, collecting and/or analyzing data.

Please write to fferuglio@escr-net.org to suggest contributions or ask questions! 

This project aims at strengthening the monitoring and implementation of CESCR Concluding Observations (COs) and encouraging states to present comprehensive ESCR data. To do so, MWG members will develop short briefs to support civil society groups and/or CESCR monitor the implementation of key concluding observations, particularly those that states are required to address through CESCR’s Follow-up procedure.

MWG members plan to focus on COs that address structural ESCR issues and offer potential for supporting existing advocacy efforts at national level. Currently members are considering two observations made by the Committee to the states of Mexico and Spain, which address the need to assess the impact of extractive projects on indigenous people (Mexico) and the impact of austerity measures on vulnerable groups (Spain).

Next Steps

If you are a civil society group in Mexico or Spain involved in monitoring and advocacy around the implementation of Concluding Observations, we’d love to support your advocacy efforts! Please write to Francesca, WG Coordinator, at fferuglio@escr-net.org.

If you have experience in developing impact assessments of extractive projects and/or economic policies (e.g. austerity measures), we’d love to work with you to develop a short monitoring brief on these issues. Please write to Francesca, WG Coordinator, at fferuglio@escr-net.org.

Last month we launched a report on community-led monitoring, a process through which people collect and analyze data on issues that affect them, in order to organize, campaign and advocate for their rights and broader structural changes. The report draws from the work of 8 members of ESCR-Net who reflected on the question: ‘What does it mean for monitoring processes to be “community-led” in practice?’ and examines the role played by community members at various stages of the monitoring process. Check it out and share it with your networks!

Next steps

We believe that bottom-up evidence and storytelling has the power to confront dominant narratives around socioeconomic rights issues, such as economic policies, corporate capture, threats to human rights defenders etc. In the upcoming months, we will seek opportunities and openings within our network to develop a community-led monitoring project involving several members in different countries. In the meanwhile, we invite all members to join our upcoming discussions on how to design and implement community-led monitoring (see ‘Strengthening monitoring of ESCR’ above).

Al Haq (OPT) advocates nationally and internationally to promote the rule of law and respect for human rights in the OPT, through legal research, documentation and building capacity to address violations of the individual and collective rights of Palestinians under international law, irrespective of the identity of the perpetrator.

Red Internacionál de derechos humanos (RIDH) (Switzerland) works as intermediary in processes of advocacy and dialogue at the United Nations, with a particular focus on human rights violations occurring in Latin American countries.

Members spotlight: interview with Erica Murphy, Right to Education Initiative, UK

What global challenge or opening is your organization discussing?

 As a human rights organisation we believe that the law can be used as a powerful advocacy tool but we also recognise the challenges in holding states legally accountable. We have therefore sought to examine the necessary conditions for the legal enforcement of the right to education at the national, regional, and international levels. We also work on a number of of thematic issues, including the privatisation of education and education in emergencies.

What recent impact or project are you most excited about?

We are currently piloting our Right to Education Monitoring Guide and Indicators Selection Tool to examine the human rights impacts of conflict and insecurity on education. We are experimenting with how we can use different types of data (quantitative, testimony, legal, and audiovisual) to tell human rights stories that do not reduce people to statistics, recognise the impacts and structural causes of violations, and give a voice to rights-holders.

Why is collective work with fellow members important to your organization?

We recognise that the underlying causes of violations of the right to education are most likely the same drivers of violations of other human rights, and we believe that to successfully tackle these underlying causes we need to work together. In our experience, collaboration leads to more effective monitoring and advocacy. Collaborating with other ESCR-Net members makes our work better because we mutually benefit, can share the work, and be more creative.