ESCR-Net

10/09/2026

✊🌍 Bangkok, we’re mobilizing for economic justice!

As the IMF and World Bank gather in Thailand for their 2026 Annual Meetings, ESCR-Net is joining members, feminist movements, and allies from across the Global South to demand an economic system that puts people, human rights, and the environment first.

📍 October 11–16 | Bangkok, Thailand

Through the International Peoples Assembly, feminist gatherings, policy discussions, and public mobilizations, movements are coming together to demand debt justice, accountability, democratic participation, and economic policies that put people and human rights first.

From challenging the impacts of austerity and unjust debt to demanding accountability from international financial institutions and amplifying women’s testimonies and community-led alternatives, we are bringing collective demands into the streets and policy spaces of Bangkok.

✊ Those most affected by economic decisions must have the power to shape them.

🔗 Explore the events and mobilizations we’re joining in Bangkok. Link in bio.

09/02/2026

In August 2026, we joined the Network of Movement Lawyers (GNML), the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), Observa Tori and TEVIPROP in making a joint submission to South Africa’s Department of Human Settlements on the proposed Prevention of Illegal Eviction from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Amendment Bill, 2026.

Our joint analysis raises serious concerns that the proposed reforms could weaken protections against eviction and homelessness while expanding the criminalisation of land and housing occupation.

Examining the proposed law within South Africa’s historical and socioeconomic context — and alongside similar developments internationally — we highlight a broader shift towards criminalisation and accelerated evictions at the expense of the right to adequate housing, particularly for Black marginalized communities.

📄 Read the full joint submission at ESCR-Net.org.

09/01/2026

We are at a decisive moment in the fight to hold corporations accountable for human rights violations.

After more than a decade of negotiations, the UN Treaty on Business and Human Rights is entering a critical stage—and the next two years could shape whether we achieve strong, binding international rules to regulate corporate power.

If you’re new to the Treaty, now is the time to understand what’s at stake. If you’ve been following this process for years, now is the time to re-engage.

🎥 In the first reel of our new series, Mona Sabella, ESCR-Net’s Corporate Accountability Coordinator, explains where the Treaty stands, why this moment matters, and what lies ahead as governments return to negotiations in Geneva this October.

Follow the series as movements and organizations around the world continue pushing for a Treaty that puts people and the planet over corporate power.

Justice cannot be voluntary.

08/12/2026

08/12/2026

🚨 Honduras: Cinco integrantes de OFRANEH enfrentan un proceso judicial por “usurpación agravada” de su propio territorio ancestral, tras haber sido detenidos durante un desalojo violento en la comunidad garífuna de San Juan, Tela.

Ante la falta de respuesta del Estado, OFRANEH mantiene un campamento de resistencia indefinido frente a la Corte Suprema de Justicia en Tegucigalpa, exigiendo el cierre definitivo del proceso y el cumplimiento de las sentencias de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos que protegen los territorios del pueblo garífuna.

La Red-DESC se suma al llamado internacional movilizado por IM-Defensoras para exigir:

✊ El cese inmediato de la persecución judicial contra las cinco personas defensoras.
⚖️ El cumplimiento integral de las sentencias de la Corte IDH a favor del pueblo garífuna.
🛑 El fin de la criminalización y de la campaña de odio racial contra las comunidades garífunas.

Defender la tierra, el territorio y los derechos colectivos no es un crimen.

07/31/2026

Violence does not emerge in a vacuum. It is shaped by history, political choices, and economic systems.

In this new article, Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General of Karapatan, reflects on the political economy of violence in the Philippines, examining how colonial legacies, militarization, and political repression continue to shape people’s lives today.

Drawing on decades of human rights organizing, she argues that violence must be understood as a system rather than a series of isolated events. She also highlights the vital role of community-led documentation in exposing abuses, preserving historical memory, strengthening social movements, and advancing accountability.

Read the full reflection through the link in our website.
🔗https://www.escr-net.org/news/2026/our-present-is-our-past-documenting-the-political-economy-of-violence-in-the-philippines/

07/20/2026

En Honduras, la nueva Ley para el Fortalecimiento y Protección del Sector Agroindustrial, Proyectos de Energía, Turismo, Ganadería y Pequeños Productores está generando graves preocupaciones en materia de derechos humanos. Organizaciones indígenas, y de derechos humanos advierten que esta legislación facilita el despojo territorial y antepone los intereses económicos privados a los derechos colectivos de los pueblos indígenas y afrodescendientes.

El 6 de julio, fuerzas de seguridad hondureñas llevaron a cabo un violento desalojo contra la comunidad garífuna de San Juan, pese a las sentencias vinculantes de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos que protegen su territorio ancestral.

Expresamos nuestra solidaridad con nuestra organización miembro y exigimos al Estado de Honduras que ponga fin a la criminalización de las personas defensoras garífunas, cumpla plenamente las sentencias de la Corte Interamericana y derogue las leyes que facilitan el despojo de los territorios indígenas y afrodescendientes.

Lee nuestro análisis y comunicado en nuestra web.

In Honduras, the recent implementation of the “Law For The Strengthening And Protection Of The Agro-Industrial Sector, Energy Projects, Tourism, Livestock, And Small Agricultural Producers Of Honduras” is raising serious human rights concerns. Indigenous, , and human rights organizations warn that the law facilitates territorial dispossession while prioritizing private economic interests over the collective rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples.

On July 6, Honduran security forces carried out a violent eviction of the Garífuna community of San Juan, despite binding rulings from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights protecting the community’s ancestral territory.

We stand in solidarity with our member organization and call on the Honduran State to end the criminalization of Garífuna defenders, fully implement the Court’s judgments, and repeal laws that facilitate the dispossession of Indigenous and Afro-descendant territories.

Read our complete statement on our website.

07/01/2026

For communities confronting extractive industries, knowledge can be one of the most powerful forms of resistance.

Between 2020 and 2022, Indigenous women from Bolivia’s Chimpu Warmi Network transformed community-led research into a tool for collective action.

By documenting the impacts of mining, recovering historical memory, and generating their own evidence, they strengthened Indigenous leadership, supported legal action, and helped halt mining activities in their territory.
Their experience shows that research is not only about producing evidence.

When led by communities themselves, it becomes a pathway to defend collective rights, strengthen self-determination, and challenge corporate power.

Today, the maps, testimonies, timelines, and educational materials developed through the process continue to support community organizing, counter misinformation, and inspire other movements across Bolivia and the ESCR-Net network.

As Betty Villca, a member of the Chimpu Warmi Network, reminds us:
“The territory is stronger and more aware of the need to defend our land. The resistance continues, and the struggle goes on.”

Read how community knowledge became collective power for territorial defense in Bolivia.

Frente al avance del extractivismo, los saberes locales puede convertirse en una poderosa herramienta de resistencia.

Entre 2020 y 2022, las lideresas indígenas de la Red Chimpu Warmi, en Bolivia, transformaron la investigación liderada por la comunidad en una estrategia para defender su territorio. Al recuperar la memoria colectiva, documentar los impactos de la minería y generar su propia evidencia, fortalecieron el liderazgo indígena, impulsaron acciones legales y contribuyeron a frenar la expansión de actividades extractivas en su territorio.

Su experiencia demuestra que la investigación va mucho más allá de producir información. Cuando son las propias comunidades quienes definen las preguntas, construyen el conocimiento y utilizan la evidencia para la incidencia, la investigación se convierte en una herramienta para defender derechos, fortalecer la libre determinación y desafiar la captura corporativa.

Los mapas comunitarios, testimonios, líneas de