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	A Common Charter for Collective Struggle by ESCR-Net International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights   The International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR-Net) connects over 280 NGOs, social movements and advocates across more than 75 countries working to build a global movement to make human rights and social justice a reality for all.   The Universal Declaration of Human Rights established the vision and principles which recognize the interdependence and indivisibility of all human rights. This vision means that people are guaranteed civil and political freedom as well as economic and social well-being.   Economic, social and cultural rights concern essential values for a life of dignity and freedom - work, health, education, food, housing, and social security amongst others. People throughout the world share the struggle to make these human rights a reality for themselves, their families, communities, and nations.   A Common Charter for Collective Struggle   This Charter was affirmed by ESCR-Net Members during their Global Strategy Meeting in November 2016 as a shared analysis about common conditions deepening inequalities and leading to the impoverishment and dispossession of communities around the world.   Impoverishment and Dispossession Amid Abundance   We live in the most productive economy in human history with more than enough resources to feed, house and educate every human being, but these resources are not being used to meet these needs. Rather, there is a widening wealth gap that is concentrating the resources and productive capacity of the world into fewer and fewer hands while the majority face impoverishment and dispossession.   What’s more, many people have been taught that the substandard living conditions in which they struggle to survive, or that prompt migrants to move, is a result of their own poor choices.   “We need to shatter the myth that poverty is self-inflicted,” or somehow an inevitable byproduct of a global economy. Arguably, the current economic model has intensified over the past few decades. Initially piloted in Chile, the UK and US, and then imposed globally via structural adjustment policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and a series of trade and investment agreements, “neoliberal” rhetoric, regulation and policies have created a false dichotomy between freedom and equality and argued that markets free of government interference would most efficiently allocate resources and ensure economic growth.   These policies promoted deregulation for the elite, reduced taxation and public spending, privatization of public goods and services, and “flexible” labor markets.   Labor market deregulation has led to a growing informal sector, and the suppression of wages, a general worsening of working conditions and a weakening of wage bargaining power that has pushed workers, and in particular female workers, into vulnerable employment. These forms of exploitation are accompanied by dispossession in both rural and urban areas.   Contrary to its claimed promotion of freedom, the current economic system commodifies people and nature and often criminalizes the poor.   Whether via autocratic governments, the imposition of unelected officials on struggling municipalities, or international agreements negotiated behind closed doors, rights to political participation-which are interdependent with ESCR- are being consistently eroded in many contexts.   Labor, environmental and human rights regulations are treated as impediments to free markets and progressively weakened. At the same time, corporate pursuit of profit is subsidized through tax exemptions granted by governments competing for investment and corporate tax evasion through artificially shifting profits to lower tax locations or tax havens. This leaves governments with declining public revenue and/or growing debt.   Technological innovation and productive capacity have grown, but they have been matched by increasing unemployment and underemployment, stagnating real wages, deepening inequality and economic and ecological crises, which have fueled migration, social unrest and militarism.   In essence, “we are not poor; we are made poor. We can’t fight poverty but we need to fight against that which impoverishes us.”   The rules of the global economic system, in other words, permit profit to be privately enjoyed by a few while the majority (in both rural and urban areas) face growing threats to their livelihoods and their ability to realize economic, social and cultural rights in practice.   In many countries around the world, women face different and disproportionate impacts of these processes, leading to what is often referred to as the ‘feminization of poverty.’ Women are often denied access to land, financing and other productive resources, and often work in sectors that are under-valued by the formal labor market.   Their contributions are often made invisible, and their access to essential services, such as health care and education, are often lacking. As a result of conflict, migration spurred by economic necessity and other processes, many rural households are headed by women, yet they are not fully recognized.   Subjected to sexual harassment and other forms of violence, women often find themselves caught in the downwards spiral of impoverishment and without the capacity to effect lasting change in their situation.   The intensification of the market-driven global economic system, therefore, has presented grave threats to human rights, viable livelihoods, environmental sustainability and human dignity, in both the global North and the South. In the United States, for example, “capitalism is eating its middle class.”   This system tends to exploit crises (climate change, terrorism, global hunger) to further maximize profit and concentrate power in the hands of an ever-smaller elite. It is aided by the manipulation of public opinion, often via media outlets that are controlled by states and/or business interests, and which often suggest that a model premised on a drive for profit is the path to happiness, and suggests that those who challenge this paradigm are tantamount to criminals.   Corporate Capture of the State   As this economic model has intensified, it is nonetheless built on much longer histories of dispossession, and exploitation. Commercial interests in colonialism, slavery and imperialism relied on government support; today, we are witnessing the growing phenomenon of “corporate capture,” by which an economic elite undermines the realization of human rights and environmental sustainability by exerting undue influence over domestic and international decision-makers and public institutions.   This has been facilitated, in part, by drastic reductions in public spending and increasing reliance on private sector actors to provide essential services that fall under the responsibilities of states (education, health care, water distribution, etc.)   Corporations, financial institutions and investors have often relied on the collusion of States to extract and maximize profit. Since the widespread introduction of the neoliberal economic model in the 1980’s, many countries have seen elite private actors seize more power within the political system. This model finds expression in trade and investment agreements shaped by the interests of global capital to favor the plunder of common goods or so-called “natural resources” and the provision of cheap labor.   This has led to a “race to the bottom” that undermines regulation and pits workers or communities against each other in all regions. This has led, in many places, to a shift in the role of the State to serve as “an apparatus of global capital” instead of a regulator of public good.   In some countries, from the perspective of grassroots leaders on the frontlines of social justice struggles, they are confronting a corporate-police state, which is “increasingly willing to use police and military to serve the interests of capital instead of people.”   Despite decades of voluntary “corporate social responsibility” and apparent legal protections in some contexts, communities often face immense struggles just to secure information and participate in decisions affecting their future or access justice in the face of systemic violations of human rights.   Deepening Inequality   The world today is characterized by staggering degrees of inequality. As reported by Oxfam, “The gap between rich and poor is reaching new extremes. Credit Suisse recently revealed that the richest 1% have now accumulated more wealth than the rest of the world put together. This occurred a year earlier than Oxfam’s much-publicized prediction ahead of last year’s World Economic Forum. Meanwhile, the wealth owned by the bottom half of humanity has fallen by a trillion dollars in the past five years.”   At a time when a select few individuals and corporations have amassed more wealth than entire nations and where essential public services are increasingly available only to those with the money to pay for them, the gap between the rich and poor has reached unacceptable proportions.   The global economic forces that have broadened the divide between rich and poor have privatized and concentrated the world’s productive and natural resources in the hands of increasingly few. They have driven rising consumption, further aided by the planned obsolescence of goods and technologies, as vital to ongoing economic growth and profit, while treating nature as a commodity.   This has led to the destruction of forests, rivers and parts of our oceans, upon which many people depend for survival, as well as the contamination of air.   It has also destabilized the global climate, posing severe threats to the ability of countless people and their children to realize their human rights. “The ability of the environment to sustain life is threatened by climate change, perhaps the clearest symptom of a system driven by private profit over public good.”   With C02 levels in the atmosphere today, far higher than levels present on the planet for two million years, the global temperature today is higher than it has been in the last 115,000 years. Deep ocean warming is melting glaciers, driving fish and marine animals toward the poles at unprecedented rates, and raising sea levels faster than at any time in the last 2,800 years. Climate change has altered the timing of the seasons, and brought about more severe, and unpredictable, extreme weather patterns, including devastating floods, draughts and other phenomena.   In fact, these changes have disproportionally impacted the world’s poorest people, especially those who live off the land or live in precarious dwellings or low-lying coastal areas. These impacts usually are felt most strongly in locations far from the sources of the original carbon emissions or by the poor and marginalized in wealthier countries, who are neglected in times of natural disasters.   * Access the charter: http://bit.ly/2kbIVo2 Visit the related web page
	World’s largest business association gets direct voice in UN decision making by Svenja Brunkhorst and Jens Martens Global Policy Watch   In an unprecedented and historic move, the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly recently granted observer status to the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The resolution was submitted by France, Albania, Colombia, the Netherlands and Tunisia and was adopted during the seventy-first session of the General Assembly. The resolution sets out the ICC’s position as observer in the General Assembly from 1 January 2017 on.   For the first time, the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly (GA) has approved a business organization as an observer to the UN General Assembly. So far, the current list of non-Member States, entities and organizations with observer status in the General Assembly was mainly limited to non-Member States, like the Holy See and the State of Palestine, and intergovernmental organizations like the African Union and the OECD. Trade unions and civil society organizations are not on the list.   The request to include the item ‘Observer status for the ICC in the General Assembly’ in the provisional agenda of the sixty-seventh session of the General Assembly was made in 2012 in a letter to the UN by the Permanent Representative of France. At that time, the General Assembly decided to defer the decision to its sixty-eighth session, and one year later, the GA again deferred it to its sixty-ninth session. At this session in 2014, the General Assembly discussed a prospective observer status for the ICC, but no consent was reached among the UN member states. Thus France itself suggested to end the discussion and negotiate a resolution at a later stage.   In September 2016, the Permanent Representative of France again submitted a letter to the UN with the request to include the item on the observer status for the ICC in the agenda of the seventy-first session of the General Assembly. The Permanent Representative of France justified this request as follows:   “The private sector can bring key resources to the fore – knowledge, expertise, access and reach – that are often critical in order to advance United Nations Goals. […] Granting permanent observer status to the International Chamber of Commerce in the General Assembly will strengthen the relationship between the United Nations, its Member States and the global business community, and further enhance the existing inclusive models of cooperation.   The request of the International Chamber of Commerce to obtain observer status and represent business views at the General Assembly is part of the historic mission to foster peace and prosperity through world trade.”   The draft resolution had been initially proposed by the representative of France to the Committee on 11 October 2016. The revised draft stipulated that granting such status would neither set a precedent nor change existing criteria for observer status.   In that regard, the representative of Venezuela stressed the importance of following established criteria for the granting of observer status while also pointing out that the draft resolution highlighted the “exceptional nature” of the ICC. The representative of the Russian Federation emphasized that the request could not be used as a precedent and urged delegations to continue to respect the General Assembly’s criteria for international organizations that wished to become observers.   According to the ICC, the resolution was, apart from France, also supported by 22 other UN Member States. It was approved without a vote on 11 November 2016.   In response to this success, the Chairman of the ICC, Sunil Bharti Mittal, stated:   “We stand ready to ensure that the private sector plays a full role in meeting the ambition of the 2030 agenda. It’s a great honour for ICC to be granted Observer Status at the UN General Assembly. […] Given the complexity of today’s global challenges, it’s vital that business has a clear voice in UN decision making. We look forward to using this unique platform to deploy fully the resources, expertise and knowledge of world business in the work of the General Assembly”.   Since 1946, ICC has held top-level consultative status with the United Nations. With the observer status, the ICC has better access to meetings and documentations of the General Assembly.   With 6.5 million member companies in more than 130 countries, the ICC is the largest business organization worldwide. It represents particularly the interests of companies that are engaged in international business.   Many civil society organizations criticize that ICC’s positions and policy recommendations are often in fundamental contradiction to social, environmental and human rights standards.   On trade and investment: The ICC routinely calls on governments to maintain and strengthen investment protection and promotion agreements, including strong investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions to ensure investors have direct access to dispute settlement and financial compensation.   On human rights: The ICC strongly opposes any international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations.   On climate change: The ICC supports the interests of the big transnational oil, gas and energy corporations. In its statements it insists that governments must keep all energy options open, including conventional fuels such as coal, gas, oil, and nuclear power.   Granting observer status to the International Chamber of Commerce risks to further strengthen the power of big business and widens the imbalance between corporate interests and civil society in global policy. Visit the related web page
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