News & Events

  • In 2011, Equal in Rights published “A Guide to Costing Human Rights” by Victor Steenbergen. This paper provides an overview of all the central concepts and definitions relevant for costing human rights policy.
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  • In 2011, Equal in Rights published “ Frontloading Human Rights: A Conceptual Framework for Building Budget and Realising rights” by Victor Steenbergen. This paper defines all the key concepts and provides an understanding of their relevance for Frontloading Human Rights.
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  • The International Human Rights Internship Program (IHRIP), in collaboration with the International Budget Partnership (IBP), implemented a ten-day West African Regional Learning Program on Human Rights Budget Work in Monrovia, Liberia from July 4th to July 13th, 2011.
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  • The Center for Women’s Global Leadership published its report on“Maximum Available Resources and Human Rights” in June 2011. This report examines a number of ways that governments can access financial resources in order to fulfill their obligation to use “maximum available resources” to realize ESC rights.
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  • “ No Protection for Children in the Budget 2011-2012” provides an analysis from a child rights’ perspective of the allocations for children (Budget for Children—BfC) in the 2011-12 Indian Union budget. 
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  • In December 2010, The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights in an article, "Austerity Budgets Will Cause Further Child Poverty", recently said that political priorities and budget allocations are the principal reasons for the large differences in child poverty rates among European countries, and between those countries in similar economic situations. 
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  • In mid-2009 the International Budget Partnership (IBP) released “It’s Our Money. Where’s It Gone?”, a documentary film on the work of one of its partners, MUHURI (Muslims for Human Rights).  MUHURI involves communities directly in monitoring expenditure of the government’s Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in Mombasa, Kenya.“
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  • In early 2010 IHRIP and the International Budget Partnership (IBP) produced “Reading the books: Government budgets and the right to education” that looks at elements of the right to education and where these might be found in a government’s budget; a government’s human rights obligations and questions these raise about a government’s budget; a process for using a rights framework to analyze a government’s education budget; and a short discussion of costing related to the right to education.
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Resources to assist right to housing budget work PDF Print E-mail

 

  • “Budgeting for Social Housing in Northern Ireland: A Human Rights Analysis” (2010) is the product of a two-year project undertaken by Queen’s University Belfast that sought to examine social housing expenditure in Northern Ireland using an economic and social rights framework.  The report finds that social housing provision in Northern Ireland is not adequately funded to comply with international human rights standards.  It reveals how thousands of people are on the waiting list for homes and also discusses potential gaps in accountability and transparency.    

  • IDASA's Budget Brief 111 is a very interesting and useful article entitled “The Grootboom case and women’s housing rights”.  The article contains an excellent human rights analysis of the facts of the case, as well as of the relevant housing policies and the budget.  While the focus is on women’s access to housing in South Africa, the reasoning in the article is instructive for how to approach human rights budget analysis in general. 

  • The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) does not work on government budgets itself (although some of the organizations with which it collaborates do).  COHRE’s web site, however, has a wealth of information on legal standards related to the right to housing as well as research and advocacy on housing issues around the world.

  • Roberto Gargarella and Gustavo Maurino, “Vivir en la Calle, El Derecho a la Vivienda en la Jurisprudencia del Tribunal Superior de Justicia de la Ciudad” Buenos Aires, Argentina. This article assesses two decisions of the Superior Court of Justice of the City of Buenos Aires (TSJ) on the right to housing, where the key issue was the authority of the judiciary to make decisions on economic and social rights matters.   According to the authors, the court did not provide any specific exploration or consideration of arguments or information presented to it on government budget decisions or on an analysis of the impact of these decisions on the right to adequate housing. The court provided no reasons or evidence for its decisions beyond the assertion that the fulfillment of social rights requires resources, that resources are scarce, and that therefore the judiciary should not be involved in the matter.  The authors undertake an in-depth analysis of the fundamental constitutional concepts, particularly about the separation of powers in a democracy, that the judges used to justify their verdicts.