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2 TRANSFORMING THE HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT Human Rights NGOs Embrace ESC Rights I n recent years Amnesty International has broadened its mission in recognition that there are many more prisoners of poverty than prisoners of conscience, and that millions endure the torture of hunger and slow death from preventable disease. Given the interconnected nature of all human rights violations, engaging with economic, social, and cultural rights has enabled Amnesty International to address complex human rights problems in a more holistic and comprehensive manner. —Human Rights and Human Dignity: A Primer on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Amnesty International, 2005 The Emerging Movement for ESC Rights Over the past decade, advocacy for economic and social rights has grown more widespread, more often internationally sanctioned, and at times more effective. This advocacy, wrapped within the internationally recognized standards of human rights, is expanding as organizations promoting economic and social policies through the international human rights framework grow, attract support from grassroots and international NGOs, and help to shape and expand national and transnational NGO networks. United Nations agencies and other international agencies have taken steps to assist in developing more rigorous definition, monitor45 ing, and implementation of ESC rights. The UN Commission on Human Rights appointed special rapporteurs on education, food, housing , and highest attainable standard of health. At key UN bodies from the UNDP to the World Health Organization and Food and Agricultural Organization, rights-based approaches proliferated, reinforcing the move by UN human rights bodies to focus on economic and social rights and lending legitimacy and support to similar steps among NGOs. The growth in ESC rights advocacy, and with it the transformation of the human rights movement, encompasses two processes: the development of new movements and organizations that explicitly link critical human needs issues to social and economic rights standards; and the expansion of mandates by traditional civil and political rights groups to cover ESC rights. While new organizations and networks are forming to promote ESC rights, traditional international human rights groups are grappling with adoption of a “full spectrum” approach to human rights advocacy, promoting the entire range of human rights principles and standards embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the two binding international treaties that were developed to legally codify the UDHR. As examples, Human Rights Watch (HRW) and others have adopted some ESC rights analysis and advocacy , while Amnesty International’s international policymaking body took a decisive step in 2001 toward full engagement with ESC rights. This chapter first examines the international conditions that have changed over the last two decades and how traditional civil and political human rights organizations have altered their strategies in response , leading to the eventual embrace of economic and social rights advocacy. Second, three case studies of traditional international human rights organizations, and of the new organizations that have emerged that focus explicitly on ESC rights, allow us to observe the variety of patterns of adoption and organizational change. Third, we turn to debates within the human rights community about the efficacy of traditional human rights organizations adopt46 Transforming the Human Rights Movement ...

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