News
Dr Amanda Cahill-Ripley and Karol Balfe brief the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
13 April 2018 / Amanda Cahill-Ripley
On 26th March 2018 Dr Amanda Cahill-Ripley and Karol Balfe briefed the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace at their 63rd session in Geneva.
Dr Amanda Cahill-Ripley, (Academic Lead, Lancaster University) and Karol Balfe, (Head of Tackling Violence and Building Peace, Christian Aid Ireland), presented the project’s research to the principle international human rights treaty body concerned with protecting and promoting economic, social and cultural rights at the United Nations. The briefing was hosted by the UN CESCR Secretariat and Freidrich Ebert Stiftung (project partners) and aimed to highlight how economic, social and cultural rights can contribute to sustaining peace, which includes conflict prevention, peace-making, transitional justice and post-conflict peacebuilding. It also provided the Committee with some country examples based on Christian Aid Ireland local partner’s experiences in the field of how attention to economic, social and cultural rights in conflict affected settings is necessary and how the Committee could address such issues within their engagement with State Parties to the Covenant.
The briefing was very well attended by both Committee members and invited NGOs such as the Quaker UN Office (project partners); the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, as well as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Team.
The briefing also marked the official launch of the project’s new report based upon groundbreaking research entitled, ‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace: An Introduction’ (see here). The main objective of the report is to enhance knowledge and develop understanding of how economic, social, and cultural rights can contribute to a sustaining peace approach to peacebuilding. It also makes concrete recommendations to States and other stakeholders, such as human rights and peacebuilding bodies, as well as NGOs and other civil society organisations, as to what they can do to highlight the nexus between economic, social, and cultural rights and sustaining peace, and how to incorporate such rights into their peacebuilding actions. With this objective in mind, the report provides an overview of the topic and offers analysis of the benefits and challenges to better understand how addressing economic, social and cultural rights can contribute to all peacebuilding processes – from conflict prevention to post-conflict peacebuilding.
Briefing on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace, Monday 26th March 2018, Palais des Nations, Geneva.
11 February 2018 / Luke Graham
Monday 26th March has been confirmed as the date for a lunchtime briefing on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights and Sustaining Peace. The briefing will present the project’s work to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) on emerging issues in the field of sustaining peace and ESCRs, in addition to presenting experiences from the field and suggestions for further addressing further sustaining peace in the work of the Committee. Lancaster University will be represented by the project’s lead, Dr Amanda Cahill-Ripley, as well as Professor Sigrun Skogly. Other speakers include Karol Balfe, Head of Tackling Violence and Building Peace at Christian Aid Ireland. This briefing is kindly organised by partner organisations FES Geneva and QUNO.
Update on ‘Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace Project: Recent Activities
23 October 2017 / Luke Graham
- The team have been busy working on the Knowledge Exchange publication and we would like to extend an invitation out to anyone who has interesting case study material that they could contribute to the publication on any of the themes that were discussed at the conference. Please send these to escr@lancaster.ac.uk We aim to launch this booklet at an event in the beginning of the New Year. Please keep an eye on the website for details (but we will also be sending out information as soon as it is confirmed).
- We are planning to participate in the Collaborative Research Network on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at the Law and Society Annual Meeting in Toronto in June 2018, with the aim of continuing the knowledge exchange between practitioners and academia and broadening these discussions ‘over the pond’ with a wider range of actors. If anyone is interested in knowing more please see the website.
- Amanda, Hannah (FES) and Anna (swisspeace) took part in an expert seminar in Geneva this month on “Approaching New Realities: Human Rights in Conflict Situations – Expanding the Scope of the Human Rights Council”, sponsored by the German Institute for Human Rights, Forum Menschenrechte, Geneva Academy and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The podcast by Dr. Amanda Cahill-Ripley will be uploaded shortly.
- We have approached several highly-esteemed peer-reviewed journals regarding hosting a Special Edition. Once we have heard from the editors in chief we will send out further details. At this point we would be grateful for expressions of interest to participate in this special issue. We are hoping to have a good balance of academic and policy/practitioner submissions.
- We would like to update the website with any relevant publications that you have been working on. Please send details of any publications (policy; academic; practice notes) or any relevant events that you would like to advertise. We are also happy to advertise such events via our Twitter account @escrsp
We hope in the future to secure further funding for undertaking research into the themes raised by the project to date and any new relevant themes that participants raise. Please do get in touch if you would be interested in further research collaboration.
Ground-breaking knowledge exchange symposium has taken place at Lancaster University.
12 July 2017 / Amanda Cahill-Ripley
Knowledge Exchange Symposium: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace: Developing New Insights into Peacebuilding
Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th July 2017, Lancaster University, UK
A successful and ground-breaking two-day knowledge exchange symposium has taken place at Lancaster University Law School in Lancaster, UK.
The second event of a collaborative project between the Quaker UN Office (QUNO), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Dr Amanda Cahill-Ripley of Lancaster University Law School, which aims to enhance knowledge and understanding of the role of economic, social and cultural rights (ECSRs) in sustaining peace.
In particular, we aim to:
- Assist in networking traditional and non-traditional actors in peacebuilding (including ESCRs actors)
- Advance innovative practice and thinking on peacebuilding and ESCRs
- Strengthen the relationship between academia, human rights actors and peacebuilding actors and expand space for dialogue about realising rights, building peace and resolving conflict across different institutions and sectors.
- Develop an enhanced and broader understanding amongst practitioners and academics of promising practices in the peacebuilding and economic and social rights fields.
This event built on a previous workshop held in Geneva in February 2017 which brought together academics and representatives of peacebuilding and human rights organisations to identify the intersections between ESCRs and peacebuilding in theory, policy, and practice. As a result of this workshop, the need for further exploration of ideas and exchange of dialogue in order to strengthen mutual knowledge and understanding was clearly identified. With this in mind, the purpose of this symposium was to provide an opportunity for a wider group of academics and practitioners to present their research and experiences in relevant areas, to further enrich the debate and build upon the initial discussions.
The symposium brought together participants from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, international NGOs such as the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Swisspeace, Christian Aid Ireland and International Alert as well as academics from University of Edinburgh, Madrid, University of Nottingham, University of Manchester, Coventry University Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, An Najah University and the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster, to discuss their academic, practitioner and policy insights on a theme or experiences related to the central topic of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace. Topics discussed included:
- Local /Grassroots Peacebuilding and the Role of Civil Society
- Women, Peace And Security with a focus on Economic Empowerment
- Conflict Transformation
- Rights and Non-Violent Resistance
- Early Warning, Risk Analysis and Conflict Prevention
- Transitional Justice
- Business and Due Diligence Obligations to advance Peace
- Structural Violence
- Resilience
- Human Security
- Inequality
- Development
- Specific ESCRs in a peacebuilding context including Reproductive rights
- Specific case studies including Honduras, Colombia; Palestine
Call for Papers!
8 May 8 2017 / Amanda Cahill-Ripley
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Sustaining Peace: Developing New Insights into Peacebuilding
Knowledge Exchange Symposium, Wednesday 5th July 2017, Lancaster University, UK
The topic of human rights and conflict transformation is not a new one. However, increasingly attention is being given to the lack of consideration of economic, social and cultural rights within peacebuilding. This one day knowledge exchange symposium to be held at Lancaster University Law School in Lancaster, UK on Wednesday 5th July 2017, is the second event of a collaborative project between the Quaker UN Office (QUNO), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Dr Amanda Cahill-Ripley of Lancaster University Law School. The project aims to enhance knowledge and understanding of the role of economic, social and cultural rights (ECSRs) in sustaining peace. In particular, we aim to:
- Assist in networking traditional and non-traditional actors in peacebuilding (including ESCRs actors)
- Advance innovative practice and thinking on peacebuilding and ESCRs
- Strengthen the relationship between academia, human rights actors and peacebuilding actors and expand space for dialogue about realising rights, building peace and resolving conflict across different institutions and sectors.
- Develop an enhanced and broader understanding amongst practitioners and academics of promising practices in the peacebuilding and economic and social rights fields.
- Further information on the project can be found here: http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/escr-peacebuilding/
This event will build on a previous workshop held in Geneva in February 2017 which brought together academics and representatives of peacebuilding and human rights organisations to identify the intersections between ESCRs and peacebuilding in theory, policy, and practice. As a result of this workshop, the need for further exploration of ideas and exchange of dialogue in order to strengthen mutual knowledge and understanding was clearly identified. With this in mind, the purpose of this symposium is to provide an opportunity for a wider group of academics and practitioners to present their research and experiences in relevant areas, to further enrich the debate and build upon the initial discussions.
The event will be organised around a number of panels where speakers will present their academic, practitioner and policy insights on a theme or experiences related to the central topic concerning ESCRs and Sustaining Peace, including but not limited to:
- Economic Crimes And Corruption
- Local /Grassroots Peacebuilding
- Gender /Women, Peace And Security
- Conflict Transformation
- Early Warning, Risk Analysis and Conflict Prevention
- Post-Conflict Peacebuilding
- Transitional Justice
- Non-State Actors (Including Business; NSAC)
- Structural Violence
- Resilience
- Human Security
- Inequality
- Discrimination/Vulnerable Groups
- Political Settlements/Legal Agreements
- Fragility
- Development
- Specific ESCRs in a peacebuilding context
- NB. Cross-cutting themes and presentations on particular case studies/ programme level experiences are also encouraged.
Time will be included within each panel session to ask questions and debate issues raised.
In the evening all symposium participants will be invited to attend supper on board The Kingfisher canal barge for a cruise through the countryside of Lancaster. There is a nominal fee of £25 per person for the evening cruise including dinner.
Abstract Deadline
We look forward to receiving your abstract. Please submit a 200-500 word abstract to: escr@lancaster.ac.uk by Friday 26th May 2017.
I really hope you can join us for what promises to be a very interesting and formative event.
