Projects
Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
Philip Alston, Mary Robinson (former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights), and James Wolfensohn (then president of the World Bank) talk during a conference on the relationship between human rights and development issues.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes rights to food, housing and education alongside rights to liberty, freedom of expression, and equal protection of the law. However, the "civil and political rights" have often been favored while the "economic, social and cultural rights" have been neglected.
The Center aims to correct this imbalance by analyzing problems of implementation at the national level, examining the roles played by institutional actors within the international community, and fostering dialogue between the development and human rights communities. The Center has undertaken a number of projects to achieve these priorities, including:
- conducting a major project on the human rights accountability of transnational corporations and international organizations, which resulted in an edited volume, Non-State Actors and Human Rights
- being involved in efforts to promote the realization of the United Nations-endorsed Millennium Development Goals. In 2002 the Center’s Faculty Director and Chair, Philip Alston, was appointed by the late Sergio Vieira de Mello as Special Adviser to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and his representative on the Millennium Project Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development, chaired by Prof. Jeffrey Sachs. To contribute to this process, the Center organized a workshop on Human Rights and Development: Towards Mutual Reinforcement.
Prof. Margaret Satterthwaite conducts right to water study at Twa Rivye, Port-de-Paix,Haiti.
- highlighting labor rights and the rights of migrants as core human rights issues. Center activities have emphasized the intersection of labor rights and women’s rights by focusing on migrant domestic workers. In October 2005, the Center co-sponsored, along with Global Rights, a general interest hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concerning the rights of migrant domestic workers in the United States. Faculty Director Margaret Satterthwaite on the right to a remedy, which is frequently violated in relation to domestic workers who are employed by diplomats and others enjoying immunities before national courts. Professor Satterthwaite also presented on the same issue during the 2005 U.N. Human Rights Commission as the legal adviser to a delegation of domestic workers. In 2005, the Center completed a project examining labor rights as human rights; this project culminated in the volume, Labour Rights as Human Rights, edited by Center Faculty Director and Chair Philip Alston. The Center’s Working Paper series also includes several papers focusing on migrant’s rights and on labor rights as human rights.
- promoting a move beyond abstract discussions about the concept of economic and social rights to study of the ways in which specific rights can be given effect at the national level. A number of the papers included in our Working Paper series, many of which were written by Center members and former students, address the implementation of particular rights, including education, food, health, and housing
- Using cutting edge methodologies to assess—and advocate for—the fulfillment of the rights to water and food
PRESS RELEASE
Groups Call for Respect for Human Rights to Guide Haiti Donors’ Conference
Recommend Mechanisms for Transparency, Accountability, Participation in Rebuilding of Haiti
(New York, March 31, 2010)—The human rights and dignity of all Haitians should be the driving force behind international assistance in rebuilding Haiti, said a coalition working for human rights and improving aid delivery in Haiti today, as major donors gathered in New York to discuss the future of aid to Haiti. The groups—Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Partners In Health (PIH)/Zanmi Lasante (ZL), and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights (RFK Center)—have rallied a global call for a rights-based approach to international assistance, in advance of today’s Haiti Donors’ Conference.
PRESS RELEASE
Rights Groups Testify about Haiti and Human Rights before Inter-American Commission
Testimony Details Haiti Aid Challenges, Presses for Commission Investigation
(Washington DC, March 23, 2010)—Members of the Organization of American States (OAS) should respect Haitians’ human rights in their post-earthquake assistance to Haiti, said experts from several prominent organizations committed to respecting human rights and improving conditions in Haiti in their testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights today. The groups—Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Partners In Health (PIH), the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center), and Zanmi Lasante (ZL)—based their testimonies both on their recent investigations into conditions in Haiti following the earthquake and their prior experiences working on advancing respect for human rights and improving conditions there.
MULTI-MEDIA
Video Footage of Internal Displacement Camps in Haiti: March 19–21, 2010
Photos of Conditions in Haiti: March 19–21, 2010
DOCUMENTS
Neglect in the Encampments: Haiti’s Second Waive Humanitarian Disaster Submitted to Commission
Snapshot of Human Rights in Haiti Following Earthquake Submitted to Commission
Testimony of Loune Viaud (Partners in Health/Zanmi Lasante)
Testimony of Monika Kalra Varma (RFK Center for Justice & Human Rights)
Testimony of Margaret Satterthwaite (NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice)
Testimony of Mario Joseph en Francais (Bureau des Avocats Internationaux)
Testimony of Mario Joseph (Bureau des Avocats Internationaux)
PRESS RELEASE
Groups Call for Respect for Human Rights, Accountability at Haiti Donors’ Conference
More than 300 NGOs Urge that Human Rights Drive Haiti Aid Efforts
(Boston, New York, Port-au-Prince, Washington DC, March 18, 2010)—The human rights and dignity of all Haitians should be the driving force behind international assistance in rebuilding Haiti, said more than 300 non-governmental organizations in a letter sent to donors today. A coalition working for human rights and improving aid delivery in Haiti—the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Partners In Health (PIH)/Zanmi Lasante (ZL), and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center)—joined colleagues from every region of the world in calling for a rights-based approach to international assistance, in advance of the Haiti Donors’ Conference, to be held at UN headquarters in New York on March 31st.
READ THE LETTER
PRESS RELEASE
Groups to Testify on Haiti and Human Rights before Inter-American Commission
Experts will Detail Haiti Aid Challenges, Press for an Investigation by the OAS
(Boston, New York, Port-au-Prince, Washington DC, March 17, 2010)—A delegation of experts will testify before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington D.C. on March 23rd, from 9-10 a.m. Representatives from prominent organizations committed to respecting human rights and improving conditions in Haiti—the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law, Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Partners In Health (PIH)/Zanmi Lasante (ZL), and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center)—will provide testimony aimed at encouraging the Commission to formally investigate the human rights impacts of post-earthquake aid on behalf of the Organization of American States (OAS).
PRESS RELEASE
Rights Groups Travel to Haiti to Assess Human Rights Situation
Delegation of Experts to Examine Aid in Port-au-Prince and Central Plateau Region
(Boston, New York, Port-au-Prince, Washington DC, March 3, 2010)—A delegation of human rights experts will be traveling to Haiti from March 9th-12th to assess the human rights and aid situation on the ground there following the earthquake that struck on January 12, 2010. Representatives from prominent human rights organizations—the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law and the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center)—will join experts from Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI) and Zanmi Lasante/Partners In Health in Haiti to conduct what is the first of a series of assessments that will span the coming year.
PRESS RELEASE
Groups Call on Donors to Advance Human Rights in Rebuilding Haiti
Coalition Issues Concrete Recommendations to Donors in advance of March Haiti Conference
(Boston, New York, Port-au-Prince, Washington DC, February 17, 2010)—Several prominent human rights groups have issued concrete recommendations calling on donor states to take a rights-based approach to rebuilding Haiti. The groups—Bureau des Avocats Internationaux (BAI), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ) at NYU School of Law, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Partners In Health/Zanmi Lasante, and the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center)—made their recommendations public today, well in advance of the upcoming Haiti Donors’ Conference, which will be scheduled for late March or early April.
The groups all have substantial experience working in Haiti—including during this and previous emergencies—and aim to influence the outcome of the Haiti Donors’ Conference by promoting four priorities that are key to successful rebuilding: accountability, transparency, empowerment, and capacity building.
CENTER HIGHLIGHT
CHRGJ Faculty Director Margaret Satterthwaite featured in Social Text Journal, "Haiti in Fragments"
Partnering for Rights: Rebuilding Haiti after the Earthquake
By Margaret Sattherthwaite, January 2010
The human rights community has been sharply split over Haiti since the late 1990s. From one perspective, Haitians' main problems consisted of civil and political rights violations--brutal tactics used by leaders once beloved by all, corruption in ministries, and the withering of democratic ideals. From another point of view, the Haitian people were suffering grave violations of their economic and social rights as a result of the deliberate hobbling of the government by the international community's neoliberal policies and blocking of aid. Like most polarized discourses, this one held kernels of truth and also missed big parts of the picture. The fact is that the widespread, pervasive denial of the most basic economic and social rights in Haiti--to food, water, and healthcare--has, since the founding of the republic, been intertwined with the inability of the nation's poorest people to access justice on a daily basis. It's time to put to bed the idea that civil and political rights compete with economic and social rights, or that one set of rights is more crucial than the other.
PRESS RELEASE
Rights Groups Urge Respect for Human Rights in Delivering Aid to Haiti
Call for Transparency and Consultation with the Haitian People and Government
(January 14, 2010, New York, Washington DC, and Port-au-Prince)– In the wake of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, six prominent rights groups issued a statement today calling for relief efforts to be grounded in human rights principles, transparency, and respect for the human dignity of all Haitians. The groups—the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ), the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Partners In Health/Zanmi Lasante, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center), and TransAfrica Forum—warned that failure to do so could aggravate the already disastrous impacts of the earthquake.
“There is no doubt that Haiti’s hungry, thirsty, injured, and sick urgently need all the assistance the international community can provide, but it is critical that the underlying goal of improving human rights drives the distribution of every dollar of aid given to Haiti,” said Loune Viaud, Director of Strategic Planning and Operations at Zanmi Lasante. “The only way to avoid escalation of this crisis is for international aid to take a long-term view and strive to rebuild a stronger Haiti—one that includes a government that can ensure the basic human rights of all Haitians and a nation that is empowered to demand those rights.”
Press Statement: A Call for Human Rights-Based Approach to Humanitarian Assistance for Haiti (January 14, 2010)
NEW
Grupos Humanitarios Urgen Respeto a los Derechos Humanos en la Entrega de Ayuda a Haiti (January 14, 2010)
Press Statement: Un Llamado de una Estrategia de los Derechos Humanos al Través de la Asistencia Humanitaria a Haití (January 14, 2010)
Organizations de Défense des Droits de l’Homme Réclament Respect pour les Droits de l’Homme dans la Réponse Humanitaire en Haïti (January 14, 2010)
Press Statement: Appel à ce que l’aide humanitaire pour Haïti soit ancrée dans une approche fondée sur les droits de l’homme (January 14, 2010)
HIGHLIGHT
CHRGJ Follows Water Report with Project on the Right to Food in Haiti
At a time when resource issues are gaining more urgency globally, the Center’s innovative multidisciplinary approach is producing not only scholarship and critique, but actually facilitating tangible change on the ground.
Inspired by the success of the Right to Water project and report, the Center and its partners—Partners In Health, The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and Zanmi Lasante—have embarked on a multidisciplinary study on the right to food in Haiti’s Plateau Central, a region that has been particularly affected by violations of the right to food in recent years. This project seeks to identify the challenges to such violations and suggest solutions aimed at achieving the right to food in Haiti. The project will contribute to tangible solutions to the food crisis at the international and national levels. Because many Haitians depend on food aid, this project focuses on the provision of such aid.
The project uses empirical human rights research—in the form of a survey of 150 individuals and targeted focus group discussions conducted in the town of Hinche during the summer of 2009—to measure violations of the right to food in the region and assess how international food assistance programs do or do not help fulfill people’s right to food. This methodology is complemented by innovative research on food security and food assistance to inform a report to be released in the United States and Haiti. The groups believe that accurately measuring the rights at issue and advocating for change based on the community’s own experience are powerful means for translating human rights-based recommendations about food assistance into tangible legislative and policy changes.
HIGHLIGHT
CHRGJ Expands its Focus on the Right to Water (2008)
During the 2007-08 academic year, the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law’s CHRGJ took on several key projects aimed at expanding its focus on economic, social, and cultural rights, with particular emphasis on the right to water as a basic human right. The projects benefitted richly from close collaborations with partner organizations and engaged a broad range of methodologies. Click here to view some highlights.
REPORT
Rights Groups Launch Groundbreaking Report on Right to Water in Haiti
Groups Allege U.S. and the IDB Violated Rights by Obstructing Vital Water Projects
(NEW YORK, June 23, 2008)—Lack of access to clean water in Haiti has devastating health consequences and constitutes a clear violation of Haitians’ right to water according to both domestic and international legal obligations, claims a new report released today by the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice (CHRGJ), Partners In Health (PIH), the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center (RFK Center), and Zanmi Lasante. The release of the report, “Wòch nan Soley: The Denial of the Right to Water in Haiti,” comes just months after public outrage over rising food prices led to a full-blown political crisis in Haiti.
The 87-page report—which combines health and water data gathered on the ground in Haiti, legal analysis, and discussion of the historical context—presents the findings of a joint project conducted by the groups, who worked together to research, author, and release it. The groups used human rights and public health methodologies to assess the right to water in Haiti by surveying community members, testing water sources, and meeting with community leaders and government officials.
Report Launch (June 23, 2008)
LOANS AND WATER: THE Inter-American Development Bank Link (On US and IDB Role)
NEW
Full Report (French)
Full Report (Kreyol)
