Human Rights for All – International Covenant on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights: A Handbook – Women’s ESCR

This Handbook is especially for human rights practitioners who want to familiarise themselves with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and use the human rights framework in their on-going work. There is a critical need to build capacity, develop leadership, promote a gender analysis for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ( ESCR) advocates and create tools to raise awareness of women’s ESCR. The Handbook consists of information connected to ESCR including the detailed covenant, enforcement mechanisms, state obligations and useful ESCR resources.

Direct Link to Full 99-Page 2015 Handbook:

https://pwescr.org/PWESCR_Handbook_on_ESCR.pdf

Excerpt: Women’s ESCR – Economic, Social & Cultural Rights

Human rights are inherent, universal, interdependent, inalienable and indivisible. Yet, in the twenty-first century, women across the globe continue to suffer from imposed gender-based discrimination

that denies them access to economic and social resources. Specifically, women constitute 70 per cent of the world’s poor, two-thirds of the world’s illiterate and are continually denied access to basic healthcare, housing, education, work and social security. These burdens restrict women from enjoying their human rights.

The devastating impact on women’s lives and livelihoods is a

result of:

• Changing global economic situation
• Globalisation, privatisation, commercialisation, militarisation, fundamentalism, and religious extremism
• Conflicts and disasters, both human made and natural
• Long-standing patriarchal norms, values and practices
• Climatic unpredictability and other environmental destruction.

Dispossession of and change of use in resources have negative impacts on women’s livelihoods. Women, due to prescribed stereotypical gender roles, bear an unfair and unequal burden in providing food, water, fuel and care for themselves and their families. Lack of infrastructure and poor energy, and technology options add to this burden. All women work whether paid or unpaid. Women do a lot of unpaid work within the household and in family farms and enterprises. Despite its obvious economic and social worth, much of the work that women do remains invisible, undervalued, and under-appreciated.

Hence, there is a need to develop a much stronger and better-integrated approach to gender equality in the field of ESC rights. Using a human rights framework, women’s rights must be looked at in conjunction with diverse issues of food, livelihoods, social security, water, sanitation, housing, work, health, safety and security to address poverty and to promote a life with dignity. Women must be included at the local, national, regional, and international decision-making levels to close the gap between the rhetoric of policy and the daily realities of women around the world.