Countries
The Center for Economic and Social Rights carries out research and advocacy projects on economic, social and cultural rights in countries around the globe, in collaboration with local human rights advocates and activists.
Use the map below to learn more about CESR's work in highlighted countries.
Oil development in the Niger development has been at the expense of the Ogoni people's rights to health, housing and food.
Widespread deprivation and flagrant disparities in access to health and education are evidence of a clear lack of political will to realize these rights in all sectors of the population.
Stark inequalities across the Kenyan provinces in the realization of the rights to education, health, water, food and housing point to insufficient or failed government efforts. 
High levels of child malnutrition and large gender and socio-economic disparities raise questions about state efforts to ensure rights to all its people.
Bolivia has failed to reduce the striking inequalities in education, nutrition, health and income that exist among various groups of its society.
Development policies in the Amazon with devastating impacts on the health and welfare of local communities as well as the environment.
Unsustainable oil development has violated Peruvian's enjoyment of economic and social rights.
Destructive mining practices have caused Hondurans to be forcibly evicted and have violated their right to a healthy living environment.
Despite being the world's richest country, the United States lags behind many other nations in fulfilling the economic and social rights of all its citizens.
Economic and social rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, especially related to the rights to water and housing
Inadequate water and sanitation supply contribute to 70 percent of diseases in Ghana.
Malagasy people face low and unequal access to safe water, sanitation and health treatment, with high child mortality rates. Yet Madagascar spends a low proportion of its budget on health.
Average Angolan life expectancy is 41 years and 69 percent of Angolans live below the poverty line. This is despite a GDP per capita that is one of the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
After years of conflict Iraq remains volatile. An ongoing war threatens progress towards political stability. Thousands of civilians have been killed and and many others displaced.
Although Afghanistan's economy is recovering after decades of conflict, much of the population still suffers from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs. 
Despite progress in realizing the rights to health and education, women's access to education, health services work are still low compared to other lower-middle income countries in the Middle East and North Africa. 
Since the discovery of oil and gas in the 1990s, Equatorial Guinea became the richest country per capita in sub-Saharan Africa; yet almost two-thirds of people still live on less than US$1 a day.
Cambodia's resources steadily increase, yet government expenditure on health and education is comparatively low, making realization of economic and social rights difficult.
Bangladeshi children's economic and social rights are declining. More girls than boys are malnourished and children in slums live in great poverty and are less likely to attend school than their urban non-slum and rural counterparts.
Ensuring that economic and social rights are the foundation of sustainable poverty reduction policies and programs
Working towards a strong monitoring and evaluation process based on a human rights framework 
Over the past decade, many millions of Brazilians have been lifted out
of poverty, largely thanks to public investments in health, education
and social protection. Not coincidentally, the country experienced great
economic success in these years, buttressed by a burgeoning domestic
demand-driven economy.
These crucial advances are now under
serious threat, however, as the government seeks to implement a swathe
of draconian austerity measures that are unnecessary, inefficient and
most likely in violation of human rights law.
In the face of a
spiraling political and economic crisis, the Brazilian government
announced a series of deep fiscal adjustments starting in the spring of
2015. In recent years, many governments across the globe have resorted
to
drastic public expenditure cuts in the name of fiscal austerity. Few,
however, are as sweeping in nature or severe in their human rights
implications as Brazil's 'PEC55' constitutional amendment. This
re-writing of the Constitution freezes spending for health, education
and other key social areas for the next 20 years. The reform in essence locks in fiscal austerity in critical areas of public
social spending until 2036, preventing any future governments from
democratically deciding the proper investment needed to fulfill its
human rights obligations. Estimates suggest that an increase of 37% in
public health care expenditure over this period will be needed to meet
the needs of Brazil’s aging population. Yet, this will be
constitutionally prohibited under the ‘PEC 55’ amendment. In the field
of education, these drastic measures ensure that no additional resources
will be made available to build schools, preschools, kindergartens, or
to improve public universities, basic education or teachers’ salaries –
making the achievement of the country’s educational goals practically
impossible. This amendment will also have the pernicious effect of
deepening existing economic inequalities resulting from the country’s
tax and fiscal policies, which have been shown to prevent people from
escaping poverty, particularly among already disadvantaged groups such
as Afro-Brazilian women.
While the pretext given for these
reforms is a need to decrease deficits by improving the country’s
sovereign debt rating, evidence is abundantly clear that fiscal
consolidation in times of economic crisis is economically inefficient
and dangerously counterproductive, as detailed by CESR during the European sovereign debt crisis. Empirical findings from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also illustrate
that cutting budgets during economic recession actually tends to
increase deficits while deepening and prolonging the recession,
worsening unemployment levels and decelerating economic recovery. What’s
more, Brazil could alleviate the fiscal pressures it is facing by
combatting tax evasion and seeking increased
revenue contributions from the burgeoning class of high-income earners
who currently pay relatively little to government coffers.
Working
in close collaboration with Brazilian partners INESC (o Instituto de
Estudos Socioeconômicos), Oxfam Brasil and Conectas, CESR is working to
combat the human rights impacts of these ill-conceived reforms.
Following our joint advocacy, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
Extreme Poverty and Human Rights also intervened with a strongly-worded statement.
As explained an op-ed article
published in El País, the measures included in PEC 55 violate Brazil’s
obligations as a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights, along with the American Convention on Human Rights
and the San Salvador Protocol on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Various international human rights oversight bodies, including the UN
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the UN Committee on
the Rights of the Child and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, have already called on the country to ensure its austerity measures do not contravene its human rights obligations.
More specifically, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued
normative guidance to all states parties – including Brazil –
confirming that fiscal consolidation policies deployed in times of
economic crisis had to meet certain criteria in order to comply with
human rights. These included that such austerity measures be temporary,
strictly proportionate, non-discriminatory, and that they take into
account all possible alternatives, including tax reform. They should
also identify and protect the minimum core content of human rights and
be adopted with genuine participation of all affected groups. Brazil’s
PEC55 amendment does not meet any of these conditions.
With
political and economic uncertainty continuing to beset both ordinary
Brazilian people and the country’s political class, it is impossible to
predict what the future may hold. Plans being pursued by the current
administration are sure to severely undermine the economic and social
rights of ordinary Brazilians, however, especially among vulnerable
groups such as children, Afro-Brazilian women and those already living
in poverty. Building on our extensive experience working at the
interstices of human rights and fiscal policy, CESR will continue to
work with our Brazilian allies as they endeavor to prevent this
far-reaching assault on human rights.
Related:
- Joint analysis document: Human rights implications of proposed Constitutional Amendment to limit public spending for two decades (Portuguese)
- El País op-ed: PEC 55: um salto no escuro (Portuguese)
- Human Rights in Tax Policy
- Fiscal Policy and Human Rights in the Americas
December 8th, 2016
