|
Recent and Upcoming
New
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Will be adopted by the UN General Assembly
December 10, 2008
Just out - OHCHR
Summary of Canadian NGO Submissions for the Universal Periodic
Review of Canada
Address
to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Geneva Switzerland, in
Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (November 5, 2008)
Presentation to Expert Seminar, Office of the
High Commissioner on Human Rights, on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and Counter-Terrorism (November 6, 2008)
Presentation for General Discussion on Draft
General Comment on Right to Non-Discrimination, November 17, 2008)
Panelist, for US Human Rights Network
Planning Meeting on
Human Rights at Home: A Domestic Blueprint for for the Administration (New York City, November 14, 2008)
International Strategy Meeting on ESCR in Nairobi, Kenya December 1 - 4, 2008
Public Education Materials
Standing Up for Your Social and Economic
Rights
English
French
The Right to Adequate Housing
English
French
The Right to an Adequate Standard of
Living
English
French
Download a submission
to the Ontario Human Rights Commission on the Right to
Adequate Housing and the Human Rights Code (Word Doc)
The Justiciabilty of Social and Economic Rights: An
Updated Appraisal
by Aoife Nolan, Bruce Porter &
Malcolm Langford |
Research
SRAC provides important research into social rights, based
on a participatory research model and extensive consultation
with affected communities. SRAC board members are all active
in a number of SRAC research projects and oversee the direction
of SRAC research. SRAC also relies on an extensive network
of academic researchers and practitioners from across Canada
and around the world for assistance and consultion in its
research initiatives. Its innovative research model bridges
academic and community and domestic and international research.
SRAC's research focuses on enhancing social rights accountability
mechanisms at the local, provincial, national and international
levels, providing research and organizational support for
community organizations to develop capacity in social rights
practice, and compiling and analysing emerging case law, including
pleadings and strategic approaches used in this area. Through
funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
- Community University Research Alliance (CURA), SRAC provides
part-time funding for its Executive Director to co-direct
the Social
Rights Accountabilitiy Project. That research has
been unanimously judged by a Mid-term Adjudication Committee
for the Social Sciences and the Humanities Research Council
as “among the best ones reviewed.” Many recent developments
in the area of social rights accountability , both in Canada
and internationally, were supported by research and action
initiated under the project. The project has been presented
to international visitors as exemplary of the principles behind,
and the effectiveness of, the CURA model.
Some of the research outcomes of the SRAP at www.srap.ca/publications
-
Hear excerpt of show on social rights developed in collaboration
with Paul Kennedy, host of CBC's
Ideas: “Rights or Wrongs” heard by approximately 400,000
listeners;
Extensive research and organizational support for the
drafting of the historic Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) (supplemented by funding
from Rights and Democracy)
Unprecedented engagement by civil society organizations,
with strong research support from academics and students,
in periodic reviews by UN human rights bodies. See, for example,
the compilation of NGO submissions and the submission of the
Charter Committee on Poverty Issues for the UN Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at http://www2.ohchr.org/onenglish/bodies/cescr/cescrs36.htm.
Development of innovative case law database on economic,
social and cultural rights for ESCR-Net, which includes pleadings,
evidence, strategies, media coverage and information on how
litigation can be connected to social movements at http://www.escr-net.org/caselaw
Current areas of research include:
International Adjudication Under the New OP-ICESCR. Strategies
and Challenges.
Statutory Minimum Fine Provisions without any fine option
program as a violation of s.15 of the Charter of Rights
The reasonableness standard of review of positive measures
- toward a convergence of disability rights and anti-poverty
strategies
Poverty in affluent countries as a violation of justiciable
international human rights norms
|
