AU Watch

Project Promote Economic, Social & Cultural Rights

“Poverty is not only about income poverty, it is about the deprivation of economic and social rights, insecurity, discrimination, exclusion and powerlessness. … There can be no peace, without justice. That is why human rights must not be ignored but given even greater prominence in times of economic crisis.”

Irene Khan, Human Rights Lawyer

We promote economic, social and cultural rights in Africa

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MONITORING

We monitor social & economic rights in Africa

CAMPAIGNING

We hold the AU and its Members to account to make sure that they do what they promise and that law, policy and practice comply with standards they have set.

COLLABORATION

We work with others to ensure that rights are upheld.

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WHAT ARE ECONOMIC , SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS?

ES&CR are human rights concerning the basic social and economic conditions needed to live a life of dignity and freedom. Economic, social and cultural rights include the rights to adequate food, to adequate housing, to education, to health, to social security, to take part in cultural life, to water and sanitation, and to work.

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OUR LATEST

News From the African Union

The African Charter is the first international human rights treaty to protect the three ‘generations’ of human rights – civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; and group and peoples’ rights – in a single instrument, without drawing any distinction between them based on their justiciability.

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A Growing Time Bomb

Africa is the only region where the youth bulge will continue to grow in the foreseeable future, presenting both an opportunity to reap the demographic dividend and an imminent time bomb justiciability.

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Transforming Education into a Key Human Rights

Of all regions, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of education exclusion. Over one-fifth of children between the ages of about 6 and 11 are out of school, followed by one-third of youth between the ages of about 12 and 14. According to UIS data, almost 60% of youth between the ages of about 15 and 17 are not in school. 

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