Advocacy

Advocacy constitutes a major tool in the human rights defender’s arsenal for attacking ESC rights violations and promoting the rights individually and collectively. Best practices in this area include:

• advocating for a national debate on the principal dimensions of poverty.
• promoting the establishment of a nationally agreed understanding of poverty (“poverty line”)
• protecting access to basic social services at times of major political or economic changes or crises
• using economic, social and cultural rights instruments as a reference for discussing and addressing poverty issues
• promoting dialogue with stakeholders about program service delivery outcomes
• seeking to influence and integrate issues of macroeconomics, trade, rural-urban discrepancies, investment, debt, globalization and governance into the government’s active agenda
• supporting the development of labor intensive policies that improve employment among the poor
• advocating for the removal of market and other distortions that discriminate against goods and services produced and maintained by poor people
• ensuring that the needs of poor people are taken into account in natural resource management strategies
• supporting the development of adequate land reform and promote programs that ensure better access to land and water resources

The following case summaries illustrate how human rights defenders have used advocacy to protect and promote ESC rights:

• Project Stakeholders Oppose World Bank ESC Rights Violations
• The Maroko Community’s Quest for Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Recompensation
• Water Privateers Forced Out of Bolivia
• Shantistar Builders v. Narayan Khimali Tatome and Others Case Summary
• Amilcar Menéndez, Juan Manuel Caride y otros Case Summary
• Living Wage Movement in USA
• Guatemalan Union Leaders Face Stiff Reprisals for Opposing Unsafe Working Conditions