Building on collective work to advance women’s rights related to land, housing and natural resources, several ESCR-Net members active in the Women and ESCR and Corporate Accountability Working Groups engaged at the 62nd UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) focused on issues impacting rural women through parallel and side events.

Next Steps

In advance of events led by the Women and ESCR Working Group during the UN Commission on the Status of Women, a Strategy Meeting on Land, Housing and Natural resources was held in New York, from, 10-11 March 2018, to review and plan collective work to advance human rights in his area of work. Through interactive discussions, members reflected on specific openings for collective action over the next couple years:

• To continue challenging large-scale dispossession, members expressed the value of collective efforts to amplify the impact of large-scale dispossession on the human rights of communities around the world and elevate alternative development models, noting the importance of research, campaigning and related popular education. There was also a call for advocacy for public policies that take seriously redistributive justice, as well as for mapping the interests and actors driving dispossession and linking up related struggles.
  
  
• Under the aim of strengthening international standards and related mobilization, openings included opportunities to inform the development of standards via a forthcoming General Comment (CESCR), UN treaty on business and human rights, reports from special rapporteurs and the emerging Declaration on the Rights of Peasants. They also included the potential to incorporate a stronger human rights focus in ongoing UN processes focused on climate change, SDGs, the New Urban Agenda, or similar spaces. Finally, several members emphasized the value of using these spaces as opportunities for mobilizing with diverse groups, articulating common positions and building related campaigns.
  
  
• In relation to bolstering social movements leadership, with a focus on grassroots women leaders, participants highlighted fostering exchanges and building alliances between social movements and grassroots women in rural and urban areas, disseminating effective practices relating to organizing communities, upholding the visions of indigenous and grassroots women, and promoting the leadership of grassroots women in wider struggles, including strengthening participation of young women leaders. Members also highlighted the importance of countering the narratives that seek to criminalize or undermine the legitimacy of struggles for LHNR and reinforcing the credibility and protection of human rights defenders.

The strategy meeting ultimately included five indigenous organizations and two other social movement members, organizations dedicated to minority rights for Roma and Palestinian communities, strong feminist organizations, and human rights organizations linking urban and rural struggles in different regions.

Next steps:

Comment the report and prepare to comment the forthcoming project plan. Please, send your feedback or comments to Viviana Osorio:

Building on ESCR-Net’s Global Strategy Meeting in 2016, Argentina, where Network-wide objectives to guide collective action where articulated, members emphasized the need to more effectively use the strength of ESCR-Net across 75 countries to challenge the structural roots of injustice, articulating a mandate for collective action and campaigning across the Network. To further operationalize this mandate, ESCR-Net is planning a meeting in Durban, South Africa, 22-25 July 2018, co-hosted by Abahlali baseMjondolo in partnership with the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI).

Engagement of the Women and ESCR working group:

• Women and ESCR WG participation: Several members of this working group will be present for ESCR-Net’s forthcoming meeting in Durban in late July where members will consider proposals and approaches to Network-wide collective action or campaigning. Please see the full participant list for that meeting 
• Contributions from the Women and ESCR WG: Anonline resource page will be developed to make available key concepts, current Network practices/lessons and campaigns to support an intersectional approach. Likewise, the working group is seeking to develop preliminary guidelines on intersectional approach in campaigning.
• Preparatory meetings: A first webinar on Durban with the Working Group members took place on 30 May 2018.

Next steps

• Join us in a second call on Durban to concretize collective campaign proposals and refine a contribution on intersectionality into campaigning. Please, answer this Doodle poll.
• Fill this online survey and let us know your ideas for campaigning!

Share your reflections/tools/concepts in relation to intersectionality and campaigning. Please, contact Viviana Osorio (vosorio@escr-net.org)

IWRAW Asia Pacific organized a Regional Consultation on Women’s Labour Rights in Kathmandu, Nepal from 18-20 May 2018 to examine the status of CEDAW implementation in South and Southeast Asia.  The report of this meeting will be soon circulated.

After the consultatio, a preliminary conversation between IWRAW-AP, Defend Job and the ESCR-Net Secretariat was held to explore openings for collective work in the area of Women and Work towards a forthcoming Strategy Meeting.

Next step

• Join us in the on-line preparatory conversation on early July for an in-person meeting on Women and Work in February/2019.
  
  
• If you are interested in engaging in a collective contribution to the adoption of a new Convention and Recommendation on violence and harassment in the world of work by the ILO, contact Viviana:

Thank you all for your active participation. Let’s keep on working together to bring this Action Plan to reality!

Follow these links to download the English, Spanish, Arabic and French versions.  

In 9-11 May, a training of trainers took place in Lake Bogoria, Kenya, with Endorois women, hosted by the Endorois Welfare Council. This TOT was aimed to strengthening women´s participation in the implementation of the ruling issued by by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) that established the government’s obligation to restitute the Endorois land and compensate the community.  

In 14-16 May, about women leaders from social movements gathered together in Nairobi for a Women´s Leadership Exchange.

Stay tuned for reports on both meetings in the coming weeks!