CESR's annual report for 2018 surveys the impact of CESR's work in a milestone year that marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of our founding as the first international NGO committed to bringing human rights to the struggle for economic and social justice. We also observed the more somber landmark of a decade of austerity policies taking root in two-thirds of the world’s countries since the 2008 global financial crisis. These harmful policy choices have driven widening inequalities and ongoing rights violations, as documented in many of the places where CESR works. This report highlights the changes that we made in countries around the world, in international human rights and development spaces, and in the broader field of social justice activism which we serve.
This report details how CESR provided leadership in assessing austerity’s human rights impacts in places like Brazil and South Africa and achieved a victory with the restoration of universal healthcare access in Spain after eight years of austerity. It also shows how we have used powerful advocacy at international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund to call out the injustices of austerity.
The report documents how CESR spoke out against regressive tax policies in countries such as Brazil, Colombia, South Africa and the United States. It also details CESR's efforts to equip human rights defenders with innovative tools for monitoring economic and social rights and demanding accountability in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Further, it shows how in Egypt, we worked with civil society groups to propose new metrics of development progress aligned with the country’s economic and social rights obligations.
