Resources on economic, social and cultural rights: thematic issues

The right to adequate housing

The Right to Housing

HREA Study Guides

This online study guide of Human Rights Education Associates (HREA) provides a great overview of mechanisms that protect the right to housing and explains key termsand different aspects of housing issues.

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Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions

Next to an overview of trainings, this website provides a legal framework for organisations that focus on housing rights and evictions. The Centre also contains an online library with publications on issues that are related to housing rights.

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The Housing and Land Rights Network

This network, as a member of the Habitat International Coalition, supports the struggle for the right to adequate housing by provoding tools for research, monitoring and evaluation. Also, a number of publications and articles are to be downloaded from the website.

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The right to food

Right to Food Quarterly

Right to food: a resource manual for NGOs

R. Künnemann and S. Epal-Ratjen: AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, HURIDOCS (2004)

This manual offers a step-by-step introduction to the right to food as a human right. It provides concepts that can be applied for analysis and action, as well as numerous examples and case studies. The Manual provides readers with strategies to strengthen the human right to food as well as resources that can be used to work for its realisation.

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FoodFirst Information and Action Network

The Network's website addresses a range of themes that concern the right to food. Next to online resources on these various themes, the website publishes press releases and has a newsroom.

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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

This UN organisation provides information on UN programmes to fight hunger and has lists of documents and annual reports on the subject. Therewith, it has an interactive page on the implementation of the Right to Food.

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The right to water

NEW: A bibliography of primary and secondary sources of law on the human right to water

Patricia Jones and Rachel Ordu (Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's Environmental Justice Program, 2007)

This bibliography is a useful resource for individuals, groups, organizations, and scholars researching, promoting, or protecting the human right to water any where in the world. It is particularly useful for nongovernmental organizations working to advance the right to water and that desire to use the instrument of the law for that purpose. The bibliography contains: information on various global, regional, and national instruments touching directly or indirectly on the human right to water; cases from various jurisdictions that touch on different aspects of that right; official reports guidelines and declarations; and scholarly articles, journals, opinions, and websites on the human right to water.

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African water laws: Plural legislative frameworks for rural water management in Africa

(2005)

An international workshop on African Water laws was held in  Johannesburg, South Africa, on 26-28 January 2005. It sought to enhance understanding of the existence and effectiveness of customary water arrangements for rural livelihoods; identify options for statutory arrangements to better recognize customary arrangements to effectively contribute to rural livelihoods; and  formulate conclusions and recommendations for policy dialogue, implementation strategies and further research. The website provides access to the 33 papers presented from a broad array of experiences across African States in full.

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Identifying and addressing violations of the human right to water: Applying the Human Rights-Based Approach

Maike Gorsboth: FIAN, Brot für die Welt

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Legal resource for the right to water

COHRE (2004)

This resource sets out the foundations for the right to water in international and regional treaties and declarations as well as in national laws. It provides an extensive compilation of international and national legal provisions and case law that protect the human right to water. This guide covers legal sources that provide for the right to water, but also surveys a selection of sources that obligate States to carry out meas­ures that form key components of the right to water.

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The right to water

The World Health Organisation (2003)

Exploring a human rights-based approach to water, this publication outlines the scope and content of the human right to water and its relationship to other civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights. It examines the implications of the right to water as a human right on the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders. It examines the various communities affecting and being affected by the right to water.

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Safe Water: An enquiry into water entitlements and human rights

Bas de Gaay Fortman (2006)

This article, published in Water delivery: Public or Private? (Utrecht 2006) speaks of the right to water from an upstream and downstream perspective, comparing different viewpoints on water entitlements.

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The right to education

Right-To-Education

This website is a gateway to information and resources on the right to education in the form of country tables, assessments, special rapporteur's reports, as well as other comprehensive publications on the meaning of the elements of the right to education; obstacles to realisation of the right to education and humanr ights education and difficult issues around implementation in practice. One excellent overview resource is the "Manual on Rights-based Education:Global Human Rights Requirements Made Simple", which provides a one-stop guide to rights-based education. It provides clarity and guidance on the bewildering array of global human rights documents, terms and strategies around the right to education and draws on numerous country-specific examples.

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UNESCO

UNESCO's portal is rich with information covering all aspects of the right to education, legal instruments, monitoring, advocacy and reinforcement of educational networks. The website's publications section comprises strategies followed by UNESCO which highlight the planning, implementation as well as evaluation aspects of the international legal framework of the UN.

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Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies

The website's resources section provides education campaign tools and articles on issues of gender, HIV/AIDS, development, the UN etc...all in relation to education as a human right. One significant publication "Ensuring a Gender Perspective in Education in Emergencies" corresponds to the education chapter from a forthcoming handbook on gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action developed by the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee and partner organizations. It is meant to serve as a resource for policy-makers and practitioners on how to ensure that gender concerns are integrated into all protection and assistance programs in humanitarian emergencies.

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INEE (Interagency Network for Education in Emergencies)

INEE have developed Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction. They are designed for use in emergency response, emergency preparedness and in humanitarian advocacy and are applicable in a wide range of situations, including natural disasters and armed conflicts. The standards give guidance and flexibility in responding to needs at the community level while providing a harmonised framework to coordinate the educational activities of national governments, other authorities, funding agencies, and national and international agencies. Apart from this central feature, the website provides a handful of resources in the form of case studies, policy statements, field guides, training materials, amongst others.

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Education Free for All Campaign (UNESCO)

The campaign provides Global Monitoring Reports, which evidence the multiple factors that determine quality of education, and map out key policies for improving the teaching and learning process, especially in low-income countries. It monitors international assistance to education and progress towards the six goals of Education for All, to which over 160 countries committed themselves in 2000, at the World Education Forum.

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Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)

The set of resources offered by the website, looks at how holistic approaches to education can encourage learning environments which are supportive, healthy and safe for children. It includes refernce to key organisations and resources, including "the State of the education worldwide: free or fee: the 2006 Global Report".

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International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)

The website gives access to an open content and open source software for education with special focus on HIV/AIDS, education in emergencies, ethics and corruption as well as practical case studies in those fields.

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Human Rights Education Associates (HREA)

This website both analyses the right to education, and outlines interrelated rights affected by compliance with international and regional instruments concerning the right to education. It also focuses on key agencies that monitor implementation of education policies and programs. Finally, the website provides some advocacy, educational and training materials targeted for advocates, policymakers or educators.

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The People's Movement for Human Rights Education

This article provides a brief overview of the issues directly and indirectly connected to the right to education. It outlines governments' obligations and commitments to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights set out in international instruments in relation to the right to education.

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Cirlce of Rights. ESC rights Activism: a training resource

Human Rights Resource Centre: University of Minnesota

This training module clarifies the scope of the right to education. It details the international standards related to the human right; discusses components of the right and related state obligations; and identifies tools and techniques that may be used to propagate the right to education.

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Gender and Child Rights

Implementing the Paris Declaration:  Implications for the Promotion of Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

The Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (PD) aims to reform the delivery and management of aid. Despite changes in how aid is delivered to partner governments, civil society organisations contend that the Paris Declaration remains an unjust and unequal framework for understanding and implementing the aid effectiveness agenda. Among other concerns, the Paris Declaration is gender blind, and as a result, fundamentally flawed. Read>>

Getting it Right for Children

This practitioners` guide to child rights programming, draws on Save the Children’s experience around the world, and provides ideas and tools that will enable development and humanitarian workers to put children and their rights at the centre of their programmes. Getting it Right for Children explains how to adapt every stage of the programme cycle so that it works to make children’s rights a reality. It sets out the practical steps you need to take, answers frequently asked questions and addresses real-world constraints and concerns. Case studies throughout show how child rights programming has worked in practice in a variety of settings. The accompanying CD ROM provides a host of further tools and useful materials. Read>>

Websites

The Right to Water

The website contains useful information, legal instruments, policy and explanatory documents for advocates working on the right to water. It covers in particular relevant international legal and political commitments of states, policy issues, the human rights-based approach to development and its implications for work in the field of water and sanitation; some country case studies, and a guide to advocacy work in the water and sanitation sector.

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COHRE

COHRE publishes books, reports and other articles on particular topics, countries or issues related to housing rights. The website offers also an extensive compilation of international and national legal provisions and case law that protect the human right to water.

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WaterAid

The website provides access to a variety of documents which outline research findings and policy positions on different issues in the water and sanitation sector. Published reports reflect the official stance that Water Aid takes on its advocacy areas; private sector participation, financing the sector, water as a human right and poverty reduction strategy papers.

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Water Not For Sale

This website highlights the relationship between the array of current free trade agreements and the process for negotiating water resources. It explains the links between water and multilateral trade agreements of the WTO, Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and free trade agreements such as NAFTA, ALCA and the Andean Free Trade Agreement. It raises awareness of the responsibility assumed in promoting private company water management. It also clarifies the impact of liberalisation on a resource so crucial for life: what will happen if water becomes a commodity subject to the rules of the market?

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Overseas Development Institute Water Policy Programme

WPP’s mission is to improve poverty reduction and social development through better water sector policy, programmes and projects. Research encompasses a range of issues surrounding pro-poor service delivery, governance and conflict and environmental management. Publications focus on cross-cutting work on rights, shared waters, working in difficult environments and urban issues with special focus on Africa.

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International Water Management Institute

IWMI works through collaborative research with partners in the North and South, to develop tools and practices to help developing countries eradicate poverty and better manage their water and land resources. The Water Policy Briefing series presents new perspectives and solutions to water problems in developing countries. Each briefing is based on peer-reviewed research that challenges policy makers and planners to think differently about the way water is managed for agriculture. The website offers a collection of conference or workshop proceedings, discussion papers or reports on progress of research, country-specific research papers, monographs, selected reports to donors and partners, etc...Also, annual reports include research on topics like water resources, institutions and policies.

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