Promoting and claiming social and economic rights through an inclusive human rights practice

What's New

In Canada:

Expert affidavits served in Right to Housing Charter Challenge


Leave to Appeal to Supreme Court Filed in Right of Undocumented Migrants to Healthcare Case

Shocking decision finding healthcare necessary for life can be denied on the basis of immigration status subject of concern by United Nations Body. Leave to appeal filed.

Applicant's Memorandum Letter from Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Challenge to Refusal to Waive Fees for Poor People heard by Federal Court of Appeal 


Access to Justice for Those Living in Poverty

Federal Court of Appeal Finds Minister Must Consider Request for Fee Waiver in Toussaint Case but Rejects Important Constitutional Claims: Leave to Appeal to SCC Filed 

 Toussaint v. Minister of Citizenship and

CCPI Memorandum of Fact and Law FCA Federal Court of Appeal Decision CCPI Affidavit in Support of Application for Leave to the Supreme Court of Canada Application for Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada


No Right to Life or Healthcare for Undocumented Migrants in Canada?

A Leave Application has been filed with the Supreme Court of Canada, appealing the Federal Court of Appeal’s Shocking Ruling That Denying Healthcare Necessary to the Protection of Life and Security of Undocumented Migrants in Canada Violates the Right to Life but is nevertheless in Accordance with Principles of Fundamental Justice


Application for Leave to Appeal to Supreme Court Filed

Applicant's Memorandum Letter from Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights

Federal Court of Appeal Decision Toussaint v. Canada (Attorney General) 2011 FCA 213 The Appellants' Memorandum of Fact and Law See the undisputed evidence of International Expert on

Migration and Health,Affidavit of Manuel Carballo  that the Court chose to completely ignore


Housing and Homelessness Strategy and Human Rights

Amendments Rejected to Ontario's Bill 140. See the key right to housing amendments that were proposed by CERA and SRAC and moved by Cheri DiNovo. See the Letter from Miloon Kothari the previous UN Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing in support of the amendments. See SRAC Written Presentation and Bruce Porter oral presentation Background Submissions Outcome of Vote


A National Housing Strategy Based on the Right to Adequate Housing

Bill C-304 model housing strategy legislation was at parliament for third reading with support of the Liberals, NDP and BQ after new Quebec provision added. This important Bill will be reintroduced in Parliament by NDP Housing Critic Marie-Claude Morin in February 2012. Stay tuned!


Charter Challenge to Homelessness Filed

A coalition of NGO's, advocates and people who have been homeless has commenced an historic legal challenge to the failure of Governments of Canada and Ontario to adopt effective housing and homelessness strategies, recognizing housing as a right Historic Charter Challenge to Homelessness and Violations of the Right to Adequate Housing  See the Notice of Application


Advanced Costs for Public Interest Litigants

Supreme Court of Canada releases Decision on Advanced Costs Awards to Public Interest Litigants


Internationally:

Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural

Article on the Reasonableness Standard under the OP-ICESCR

The Reasonableness Of Article 8(4) – Adjudicating Claims From The Margins,' Nordic Journal of Human Rights (NJHR), Vol. 27, No.1:2009.

Justice Now: Ratify to Protect All Human Rights

Current Count: 39 Signatories, 7 Ratifications: (Argentina, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mongolia,  Spain,) for the OP-ICESCR.  Only 3 more for the OP-ICESCR to come into force.

See the list of Signatories and Ratifications of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR

Toolkit for Action for the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Book 4

SRAC Works with Others to Organize Conference to Develop Strategic Litigation of ESCR under the OP-ICESCR. October 12-13, 2010: Workshop- Strategic Litigation Initiative in Support of the OP-ICESCR

See the Background Paper on Strategic Litigation under the OP-ICESCR

Symposium on Enforcement of ESCR Remedies Bogota, Columbia May 6 – 7, 2010,

Bruce Porter, Working Paper In Defense of Soft Remedies (Sometimes): Enforcing Principled Remedies to Systemic Social Rights Claims in Canada Oral Presentations on Enforcement of ESCR Remedies


New Publications

Bruce Porter & Martha Jackman, International Human Rights and Strategies to Address Homelessness and Poverty in Canada: Making the Connection, Working Paper, (Huntsville, ON: Social Rights Advocacy Centre, September 2011).

Bruce Porter, The Reasonableness Of Article 8(4) – Adjudicating Claims From The Margins,' Nordic Journal of Human Rights (NJHR), Vol. 27, No.1:2009.

See further publications:

 

Judicial and Legal Education

SRAC has conducted extensive judicial and legal education both throughout Canada and around the world.

Bruce Porter "Justiciability of ESC Rights and The Right to Effective Remedies: Historic Challenges and New Opportunities" (Paper commissioned by the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, publication in China forthcoming from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

English
Chinese Translation

Materials for judges and legal advocates:

View Bruce Porter's keynote address to the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Spring Seminar, May 2004.

View the list of relevant cases and materials prepared for Superior Court Judges Social Context Education on Poverty

View "Toward a Comprehensive Framework for ESC Rights Practice" by Bruce Porter.

Canadian ESC Rights Case Index

The Right to an Effective Remedy in International Law (Power Point)

Claiming Social and Economic Rights in Canada (Power Point)

Download "Socio-Economic Rights in a Domestic Charter of Rights: A Canadian Perspective"(2006) by Bruce Porter.

Download "The Justiciability of Social and Economic Rights: An Updated Appraisal" by Bruce Porter and Aoife Nolan in the January 2006 edition of Just News.

The Optional Protocol to the ICESCR - What's at stake? an article by Bruce Porter of SRAC on the need for a complaints procedure under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

View the text of the Optional Protocol to the ICESCR as adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.