Resource center

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Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) embody essential elements for a life of dignity and freedom, including work, health, education, food, water, housing, social security, healthy environment, and culture. Human rights provide a common framework of universally-recognized values and norms, both to hold state and increasingly non-state actors accountable for violations and to mobilize collective efforts for economic justice, political participation, and equality. Around the world, activists and advocates are using the framework of ESCR to bolster their struggles for justice and against oppression. In framing poverty and deprivation as violations of economic, social, and cultural rights, an obligation is placed on the state and, increasingly, on corporations and other non-state actors, to prevent and remedy these situations. The ESCR framework helps transform the understanding of human suffering, even in cases initially prompted by natural disasters, as a product of human decision-making, not just as the natural outcome of an “act of god” or the shortcomings of the individual. The ESCR framework puts the onus on those in power to justify or change policies and practices which undermine human rights. Using the ESCR framework, activists have brought legal cases before courts and dispute resolution bodies to demand change, documented and publicized recurring violations, petitioned various human rights enforcement mechanisms of the United Nations and Regional Systems, engaged with UN special rapporteurs, mobilized communities, developed alternative legislation, analyzed domestic budgets and international trade agreements to ensure respect of human rights, and have built solidarity and networks between communities locally and across the globe. ESCR unites women and men, migrants and indigenous people, youth and elders, of all races, religions, political orientations, and economic and social backgrounds in a common struggle for universal human freedom and dignity.

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Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit membership organization expanding opportunities for women and business.
With offices in the United States, Canada, and Europe, we count as members more than 400 companies, firms, business schools, and associations from around the world, employing millions of women. Our global lens and regional reach allow us to provide our members, the media, and the public with information and counsel on creating workplaces that enable women and their employers to succeed.
Catalyst's work is rooted in our research. We study women and men across levels, functions, and geographies to learn about women's experiences in business, barriers to their career advancement, and individual and organizational strategies leading to success. We are culturally sensitive. Our reports, often cited in international media, reveal the challenges and opportunities for organizations and women at work globally. We have an extensive compendium of diversity and inclusion practices that provides models for change.

hraini Business Women Society has succeeded – since its establishment on the year 2000 – to promote the role of women and especially businesswomen in all commercial and economical activities and to support her in all fields that would show women's participation on the local, gulf and international scale. The Bahraini woman today is cable of holding high-ranking positions in the kingdom of Bahrain. Through the co-operation of all members, the society in this session was able to hold many valuable courses, symposiums and conferences which were able to present the best image of the Bahraini woman in the Gulf and the Arabic world.

Organisation website:
The Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World was founded in 1973. The history of the Institute is closely linked to that of the first women's college in the Middle East, the America Junior College for Women, which was established in 1924 by the Presbyterian Mission and evolved into today's Lebanese American University. The College, which educated Middle Eastern women for half a century, became coed in 1973. In order to honor the college's unique heritage, the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World was established that year.

The mission of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world.

The OECD provides a forum in which governments can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. We work with governments to understand what drives economic, social and environmental change. We measure productivity and global flows of trade and investment. We analyse and compare data to predict future trends. We set international standards on a wide range of things, from agriculture and tax to the safety of chemicals.

We look, too, at issues that directly affect the lives of ordinary people, like how much they pay in taxes and social security, and how much leisure time they can take. We compare how different countries’ school systems are readying their young people for modern life, and how different countries’ pension systems will look after their citizens in old age.

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AIPBW is a non–profit international network that unites, supports and promotes professional women in Norway. It was chartered in 1994 by a group of women with international backgrounds living in Oslo, Norway. In its second decade, AIPBW has approximately 125 members from more than 30 different countries.
Members are well–educated women representing many different professions. These include fields as diverse as communications, education, engineering, environmental sciences, finance, journalism, law, linguistics, marketing, medicine, psychology and the arts.
Our group is one of 18 networks across Europe comprising the European Professional Women's Network, a Pan–European professional organization with more than 3,000 members devoted to women's career development, entrepreneurship, networking and mentoring.

Webportal:
The Lebanese Emigration Research Center (LERC)
is an academic initiative of Notre Dame University (NDU).
The creation of the Center is the direct result of NDU's
awareness of the Lebanese emigrants' contribution
to their ancestral land and to their new home countries.
It is also the result of NDU's awareness of a renewed
interest in global identity, ancestral roots and
genealogical heritage.

"Act for Lebanon" was born from the individual initiatives of Lebanese who believe in acting for a better Lebanon is more constructive than just talking about its better future.

The members of Act for Lebanon share core values that drive their actions from bottom to top; action on the grassroots level to influence decision-makers.

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Genderinag.org is an online forum which is designed to provide access to resources, tools and information which can help practitioners and other stakeholders mainstream gender into agricultural development. Genderinag.org is dedicated to raising gender awareness and improving gender mainstreaming to promote improved gender equality and gender equity in development. Genderinag.org is a community of practice bringing together specialists in many fields to promote systematic integration of gender concerns in the World Bank's rural activities. It is the only organizational entity linking gender, rural and agricultural development together with the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Genderinag.org is built as a knowledge nexus for practitioners to share analytical and advisory services on a wide range of gender-related topics. In collaboration with colleagues in the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), this e-platform is a "one-stop shop" for agriculture specialists, practitioners and the academic community to exchange creative ideas and improve upon lessons learned in efforts to reducing poverty through sustainable rural development. The website offers a scope of the basic gender concepts; from a broad overview of rural development to a more narrowed focus on country-specific case studies and project results. The website also responds to how to incorporate gender into projects, compiling good practices and innovative activities for learning.

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ABAAD is a non-profit, non-politically affiliated, non-religious civil association that aims to achieve gender equality as an essential condition to sustainable social and economic development in the MENA region. ABAAD seeks to promote women's equality and participation through policy development, legal reform, gender mainstreaming, engaging men, eliminating discrimination, and advancing and empowering women to participate effectively and fully in their communities. ABAAD also seeks to support and collaborate with civil society organizations that are involved in gender equality programs and advocacy campaigns.