Publications
“Many a slip” draws on the experiences of budget work in a number of countries, setting out a step-by-step process for analyzing a government’s budget to assess its compliance with its right to food obligations. While the focus is on right to food-related issues, the process described is readily adaptable to work on other rights.
“Many a slip…” builds on and goes beyond the information contained in Dignity Counts, a publication produced in 2004 by the International Budget Partnership (IBP), Fundar-Centro de Análisis e Investigación and IHRIP. In the five years since Dignity Counts was published, organizations worldwide have actively pursued budget work using a rights framework. By drawing on the more recent experiences of budget work in a number of countries, “Many a slip…” is able to provide a more in-depth and developed approach to human rights budget analysis. In addition, the guide contains information about initiatives in three countries to develop a “right to food budget.” “Many a slip” is 120 pages in length and is the product of a collaborative effort by the FAO, IHRIP, IBP and other organizations.
Dignity Counts, a 94-page publication, uses a real-life case study to explore how budget analysis can be used to assess a government’s compliance with its human rights obligations and to arrive at specific, concrete recommendations related to the government’s budgeting and expenditures that, if implemented, would improve the human rights situation.
Produced by Fundar-Centro de Análisis e Investigación, the International Budget Project (IBP) and the International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP), Dignity Counts focuses on the right to health in Mexico, but the analysis used is applicable to other human rights, such as education and housing, and to other national contexts. The publication describes the case study (which focuses on health care services available to the informally employed and unemployed in Mexico), a section on human rights, another on budget analysis, a discussion of the analytical process used to relate human rights and budget analysis to a specific situation, a detailed discussion of how this thinking process is applied to the case study, and a section on using budget analysis for human rights advocacy.
ESC Rights Work
The Banyan Tree Paradox: Culture and human rights activism (2.18 MB, PDF)
The Banyan Tree Paradox considers why issues where culture features prominently often provide particularly difficult challenges for human rights activists and activism. Drawing on the experiences and insights of activists and others in different regions, it seeks to encourage human rights activists in their work around culture and human rights issues. Chapters include:
- What is culture?
- Culture and power
- Culture and gender
- Culture and human rights
- Culture and human rights activism
- Fact-finding and documentation on culture and human rights issues
- Developing strategies around culture and human rights issues
The book also contains five appendices including some case studies, international legal standards related to cultural rights, definitions of culture and a short bibliography.
Ripple in Still Water is a digest of information and experiences particularly relevant and useful to local and national-level economic, social and cultural rights activism. Ripple in Still Water developed from a 1996 workshop held by IHRIP. The document has several relevant sections including a discussion of applying a human rights approach to economic, social and cultural rights and strategies and tools for activism including working with intergovernmental bodies, and national policy work, legislative advocacy and litigation.
Circle of Rights-Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Activism: A Training Resource is a publication of the International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP) and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia)
Circle of Rights is 660 pages in length and consists of contributions by a large number of activists from around the world. Part I comprises 30 modules with information about the substance of ESC rights and about strategies and tools that can be used to protect and promote them. These modules are organized into the following 10 sections: Section I – Developing a Rights-Based Perspective; Section II – History and Overview of ESC Rights; Section III – Perspectives of Specific Sectors; Section IV – Defining Rights and Obligations; Section V – Understanding Specific ESC Rights; Section VI – Monitoring and Assessing the Enjoyment of ESC Rights; Section VII – Strategies and Tools for Activism at the National Level; Section VIII – International Mechanisms and ESC Rights; Section IX – Strategies for Other Dominant Actors; Section X – Strategies and Tools – Regional. The shorter Part II includes some suggestions for training methods that may be used to convey the material in Part I.
Download PDF
Out of the Shadows
Out of the Shadows is an educational video on the work of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), with a particular emphasis on how NGOs can approach and interact with the Committee to bring attention to and further their ESC rights concerns.
Produced for IHRIP by the Magic Lantern Foundation in Delhi, India
Video
As part of an initiative to encourage the sharing of their experience by long-time activists, in 2001 IHRIP published the reflections of a human rights advocate from Uruguay and another from Romania:
“So The People Can Decide” (221 KB, PDF) was written by Maria Delgado, along with two of her colleagues, as part of a fellowship for experienced human rights activists awarded by IHRIP. The publication looks back at what happened and why around the 1989 referendum in Uruguay which sought—and ultimately failed—to overturn the law of impunity that had been put in place by the outgoing military regime in that country. “So The People Can Decide” demonstrates the close link between advocacy campaigns and human rights education.
Gabriel Andreescu wrote “Pages from the Romanian-Hungarian Reconciliation, 1989-1999: The Role of Civil Organizations ….” during the fellowship he was awarded by IHRIP. The focus of the publication is the role of civil society organizations, including human rights organizations, in helping protect and promote the rights of minority groups.