On September 23, 2016 more than 100 people gathered at University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco for a training on the human rights of migrants hosted by the International Justice Resource Center and the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies. The distinguished line-up of speakers included experts on international human rights advocacy and on migrants’
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During the month of September 2016, several supranational bodies will review States’ implementation of their treaty obligations, regional judicial bodies will conduct hearings, and four UN special procedures mechanisms will conduct country visits. Four United Nations treaty bodies will hold interactive dialogues with more than 20 States regarding their implementation of treaty obligations related to economic, social, and cultural rights and
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During July 2016, the European Committee of Social Rights and the United Nations human rights treaty bodies focused on civil and political rights, discrimination against women, and torture will convene to review States’ compliance with their treaty obligations. Additionally, the UN experts on freedom of assembly and association and on the rights of persons with disabilities will carry out country visits
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Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Nobel Laureate, Auun San Suu Kyi, arrived in Thailand on Thursday where she is expected to lobby for the rights of migrant workers. [The Guardian] Over 2,000 police have been deployed in Paris in preparation of protests over new labour legislation. Extra precautions have been taken in light of the last set of protests on
Read moreEconomic, Social, and Cultural Rights United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) heard from civil society organizations on adherence to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by the United Kingdom, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Angola. [OHCHR Press Release] As the French government debated a new labor bill that would ease restrictions on
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The independent body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that supervises States’ compliance with ILO conventions has recently issued a report summarizing the status of labor rights and associated freedoms in 2015. See International Labour Office, Application of International Labour Standards 2016 (I) (2016), at 2. The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (Committee of Experts)
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held last week that Switzerland violated the European Convention on Human Rights by assessing disability benefits in a manner that disproportionately penalized women who reduced their working hours after having children, resulting in gender discrimination. See ECtHR, di Trizio v. Switzerland, no. 7186/09, Judgment of 2 February 2016 (in French only). The application
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On January 27, 2016 the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR or the Committee) published its 2015 conclusions regarding 31 States’ implementation of the European Social Charter’s provisions related to the rights of children, families, and migrants. It found 239 instances in which governments’ policies and practices failed to adequately protect these rights. [ECSR Press Release] The Committee also reiterated 38
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A new international agreement on modern slavery will enter into force in 2016, following ratifications by Niger and Norway. [UN News Centre] The Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 updates a 1930 treaty, including by addressing the increase of forced labor in the private sector and the vulnerabilities of workers in specific industries and at-risk groups, such
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On September 21, 2015, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) commenced its 56th session in Geneva, Switzerland. During the session, which ended October 9, the Committee considered the reports of Burundi, Greece, Guyana, Iraq, Italy, Morocco, and Sudan regarding their implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). [OHCHR Press Release:
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