Economic & Social Rights

The Center develops and shares knowledge about the linkages between macroeconomic policies, and economic and social rights to better influence global and national policies, and strengthen capacities for women’s global leadership and gender equality.

• The impact of economic reforms and austerity measures on women’s human rights
  CWGL summary of the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights report to the UN General Assembly, 73rd session (2018) on the links and the impact of economic reforms and austerity measures on women's human rights [in English], April 2019 
• El impacto de las reformas económicas y medidas de austeridad en los derechos humanos de las mujeres
  CWGL summary of the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights report to the UN General Assembly, 73rd session (2018) on the links and the impact of economic reforms and austerity measures on women's human rights [in Spanish], April 2019 
• Les effets des réformes économiques et des mesures d’austérité sur les droits fondamentaux des femmes
  CWGL summary of the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights report to the UN General Assembly, 73rd session (2018) on the links and the impact of economic reforms and austerity measures on women's human rights [in French], April 2019 
• Center for Women’s Global Leadership working paper on the gender dimension of contemporary forms of slavery, its causes and consequences: challenges, opportunities and strategies to eradicate the phenomena and their particular effect on women and girls
  CWGL submission to the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, April 2018 
• The impact of gender-blind economic reforms and austerity measures on women’s human rights
  CWGL submission to the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, April 2018

• pdf Why Macroeconomics Matters for Realizing the Right to Health  
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Zard M., November 5, 2017
• Revista Institucional de la Defensa pública de la ciudad autónoma de buenos aires                                                                        By Dr. Horacio Corti & Dr. Pablo Andrés de Diovanni, June 11, 2017
• Transforming Women Work: Policies for an Inclusive Economic Agenda
  By Balakrishnan, R., McGrowan, L., & Waters, C., March 2016.
• pdf Impact of Fiscal Policy, Budget Allocation, and Federal Oversight on Women’s Right to Work and Right to Adequate Standard of Living
  CWGL sumbmission to the UN Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in policy, November 2015.
• How Inequality Threatens all Human Rights
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Heintz, J., openDemocracy, October 29, 2015.
• What Does Inequality Have to Do With Human Rights?
  By Balakrishnan, R., Heintz J., & Elson D., Political Economy Research Institute, August 2015.
• In an inter-connected world, a US human rights-centered macroeconomic and finanial policy is needed
  By Radhika Balakrishnan, RightingFinance, July 17, 2015.
• How Did the United States Really Perform in the United Nations Human Rights Review? By the Numbers, the News is Not Good
  By Balakrishnan, R & Graterol Garrido, M. The World Post, May 18, 2015.
• pdf Lessons from the 2008 Global Economic Crisis: Making the Case for a Human Rights-Centered Macroeconomic and Financial Policy in the US
  By CWGL Economic and Social Rights Consultant Maria Herminia Graterol Garrido, April 2015.
• The US Financial Crisis, Post-2015 Development Agenda, and Human Rights
  By CWGL Economic and Social Rights Consultant elmira Nazombe, October 8, 2014.
• Transforming the development agenda requires more, not less, attention to human rights (Arabic)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Saiz, I. openDemocracy, September 15, 2014.
• Towards a Human Rights-Centered Macroeconomic and Financial Policy in the US: Revisited
  CWGL, PERI and partners submit UPR report to the United Nations Human Rights Council
• pdf Creating an Enabling Economic Environment for Women’s Rights: An Analysis of Macro-Economic Issues in the CSW58 Agreed Conclusions
• Economic Reform is a Human Right: International Law can be a Powerful Advocacy Tool for Improving Economic and Social Policy
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Heintz, J. The Nation, March 13, 2014.

• Gender, Macroeconomic Policy and the Human Rights Approach to Social Protection (2013)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Thomas, S. Chapter in Shirin M. Rai and Georgina Waylen (eds) New Frontiers in Feminist Political Economy, Routledge, 2013.
  

• Public Finance, Maximum Available Resources and Human Rights (2013)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Elson, D. and Heintz, J. Chapter in Colin Harvey, Aoife Nolan and Rory O'Connell (eds) Human Rights and Public Finance: Budget Analysis and the Advancement of Economic and Social Rights, Hart Publishing, 2013.

• Macro Policy and the MDGs (2013)
  By Balakrishnan, R. Paper presented at expert group meeting on structural and policy constraints in achieving the MDGs for women and girls.

• pdf Towards the Realization of Womens Rights and Gender Equality Post 2015 Sustainable Development (2013)
  This summary report is the culmination of a two-day strategic meeting which took place in Florham Park, New Jersey from June 11-12, 2013.

• Financial Regulation and Human Rights: Will New WTO Leader Bring Change (2013)
  By Bisnath, S. Blog post on Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo being named the consensus candidate for the post of Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

• pdf The Integration of Gender and Human Rights into the Post-2015 Development Framework (2013)
  Workshop Rapporteur Borrowman, M. Edited by Balakrishnan, R., Elson, D. & Heintz, J. This report is based on the discussion that took place at the “Post-2015 Expert Group Meeting” held at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) from December 13-14, 2012.

• Applying a Human Rights Framework to Macroeconomic Policies (2012)
  By Baruch, M. Blog post on CWGL's recent Nexus Brief, which provides an introduction to conducting an economic and social rights audit on economic policy, for the Triple Crisis Blog.

• pdf The Post-2015 Development Framework and the Realization of Women’s Rights and Social Justice (2012)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Elson, D. The article offers reflections on the post-2015 development framework, based on their views of the strengths and weaknesses of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) development framework; key changes since 2000; and ideas on how to address the challenges of the post-2015 period.

• Whither Macroeconomics? Sustainable Development from a Feminist Human Rights Perspective (2012)
  By Bisnath, S. Blog post on the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), commonly known as Rio+20, for the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

•  Economic Policy and Human Rights: Holding Governments to Account (2011)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Elson, D. This Zed Books publication presents a powerful critique of three decades of neoliberal economic policies, assessed from the perspective of human right norms.

• Financial Regulation, Capabilities and Human Rights in the US Financial Crisis: The Case of Housing (2011) 
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Elson, D. and Heintz, J. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, 12:1, 153‐168, 2011. This article analyzes financial regulation in shaping capabilities, in the context of the 2008 financial crisis in the USA.

• Macroeconomics and the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation (2011)
  By Bisnath, S. This report is the culmination of a two-day experts meeting, “Macroeconomics and the Rights to Water and Sanitation,” designed to contribute to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation’s work on gender equality and macroeconomics.

• Maximum Available Resources & Human Rights: Analytical Report (2011)
  By Balakrishnan, R., Elson, E., Heintz, J. & Lusiani, N. This report highlights numerous questions and issues which could be raised in the context of evaluating whether a state is using the maximum resources available for the fulfillment of economic and social rights.

• The Right to Food, Gender Equality and Economic Policy (2011)
  By Spieldoch, A. Edited by Bisnath, S. This report is the culmination of a two-day experts meeting, “The Right to Food, Gender Equality and Economic Policy,” which was held at the Center for Women’s Global Leadership, highlighting the contribution to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food’s work on gender equality.

• Corporate Control of Our Democracy: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Heintz, J. This article discusses the  ruling on corporate campaign contributions and its influence on human rights.

• Making the International Monetary Fund Accountable to Human Rights (2010)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Heintz, J. This article discusses the IMF's lack of concern for international human rights obligations within their policies.

• pdf Towards a Human Rights-Centered Macroeconomic and Financial Policy in the U.S.  (2010)
  Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council United States of America Universal Periodic Review. This submission focuses on the human rights implications of the financial crisis and subsequent domestic policy responses.
  
  
• Why Human Rights are Indispensable to Financial Regulation (2010)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Heintz, J. This article discusses the government's obligation to protect our human rights and when an individual business or institution threatens them, they must step in to protect economic and social rights. 

• A Human Rights Response to the Economic Crisis in the U.S. (2009)
  By Balakrishnan, R., Heintz, J., and Seguino, S. This report discusses the significance of the economic and social rights that provide a fundamental standard of decency for evaluating our economic system.

• Rethinking Macro Economic Strategies from a Human Rights Perspective: Why MES with Human Rights II (Spanish Translation: Repensando Estrategias Macroeconómicas desde una Perspectiva de Derechos Humanos: Por qué EME y Derechos Humanos II) (2009)
  By Balakrishnan R., Elson, D. & Patel, R. Although economic policy has been geared toward achieving economic growth the means by which it is being done has been responsible for undermining goals in the domain of human rights, which clearly needs to be assessed through an ethical lens.

• The Economic Crisis is a Human Rights Issue (2008)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Elson, D. This article discusses the obligations governments have to respect, protect and fulfill human rights, which include the right to an adequate standard of living, the right to housing, and the right to education.

• Auditing Economic Policy in the Light of Obligations on Economic and Social Rights (2008)
  By Balakrishnan, R. & Elson, D. This text considers how concerned citizens might audit economic policies from a human rights perspective, with a particular focus on economic and social rights.

• Why MES with Human Rights? Integrating Macro Economic Strategies with Human Rights (Spanish Translation: ¿Por qué EME y DERECHOS HUMANOS? Integración de Estrategias Macro Económicas (EME) con Derechos Humanos (2005)
  By Balakrishnan, R. This work focuses on the human rights impacts in Mexico and the United States of public expenditure, taxation and trade policies, monetary and fiscal policies, as well as regulation and pension reform.

• Migrant Women's Human Rights in G-7 Countries: Organizing Strategies (1997)
  Edited by Dutt, M., Marin, L. & Zia, H. This publication reflects how migrant women in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan have placed issues such as domestic violence, worker's rights and xenophobia in the public sphere.

Related Resources:

• Missing Women: The G20, Gender Equality and Global Economic Governance (2013) by Heintz, J.
  
• New Horizons in Economic and Social Rights Monitoring Seminar Report (2013)
• World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development. An Opportunity Both Welcome and Missed (An Extended Commentary) (2012) by Razavi, S.