VIRGÍNIA BRÁS GOMES

Chair of the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Senior Social Policy Adviser for the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security of Portugal

Born in Goa, India, where she graduated from Bombay University.

Present Chair of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Senior social policy adviser in the Ministry of Employment, Solidarity and Social Security of Portugal.

Chair of the Board of the Portuguese UNICEF Committee. Member of the International Board of PWESCR (Programme for Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) and of the Portuguese Committee for Human Rights. Former Board Member of the European Roma Rights Foundation. Former member of the UNRISD Advisory Group for the project on Linking Social Protection and Human Rights, and of the European Social Network High-Level Advisory Group on De-institutionalization.

Distinguished Guest Lecturer in the LLM Program in Intercultural Human Rights at the
St. Thomas University School of Law (2018); Invited expert at the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University / College of Asia & the Pacific (2015); Faculty member of the Leadership Institute in Women’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2011 to 2015).

She has conducted training in treaty body reporting and on human rights in Africa, Asia and Europe, on behalf of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Published articles include Human Rights Treaty Bodies: Monitoring, interpreting, and adjudicating health-related human rights (co-authorship); The right to work and rights at work: gender implications; New European Asylum Procedures: One step forward, two steps back?; Human Rights and Development: the two sides of the same coin; and Multicultural Europe: combating racism and intolerance.

  • Wednesday, 7 November

    SESSION 1. AN ASSESSMENT OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW SINCE ITS INCEPTION UP TO THE PRESENT

  • 18:30  - 19:10
    Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: from aspirations to reality?
    VIRGÍNIA BRÁS GOMES
    The human rights vision so beautifully spelt out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of which we celebrate the 70th anniversary, is captured in the four freedoms – freedom of speech and expression; freedom to worship in his /her own way; freedom from fear; and freedom from want, this last freedom widely interpreted as a synthesis of economic and social rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. They could well be defined as everyday rights for everyday people who aspire to live with dignity. In response, States, as duty bearers, need to comply with their core and progressive realization obligations using maximum available resources. For this purpose, they need to generate resources for public policies for the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights and to support social transfers to mitigate inequalities that grow in times of crisis. They also need to ensure access to justice for those seeking remedies for violations of their rights. Above all they need political will to recognize and realize these rights. The world in which we live poses a number of challenges that greatly impact the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. To name just a few: • unfair distribution of the costs and benefits of globalization
    • economic recession, unemployment and non-standard forms of employment with negative effects on societies as a whole but in particular for women, young people, persons with disabilities, ethnic, cultural and religious minorities, and other individuals most in need of the protection of the State
    • the weakening of the Welfare State and the challenges of making a public/private welfare mix work for everyone, in particular the most disadvantaged
    • decentralization and privatization of services required to make rights effective on the ground that call for a strong monitoring role on the part of public authorities
    • the changing roles of women and men and the growing need for reconciliation by both of their professional, family and personal lives
    • the many faces of development and of mega development that have seldom led to progress and to the increased well-being of local communities, but rather to eviction, displacement and increased poverty
    • the need to protect rights holders from violation of their rights by third parties touching on still very debated issues like extraterritoriality
    • the effects of climate change and environmental degradation on the realization of ESCR that are far from being totally understood and even less integrated in public policies
    • the unparalleled global refugee and migration crisis that has led to the unnecessary deaths of so many men, women and children and to the physical and emotional suffering of so many others, is a permanent reminder to us all of how much we are failing to recognize and protect intrinsic human dignity
    • the widening of inequalities between individuals and countries and the shrinking of democratic space all over the world that we have been witnessing sound bells of alarm.
    We need national contexts that are more responsive to the rights of individuals, families and groups and new modalities of international cooperation based on solidarity, shared responsibility, mutual respect and complementarity. More than emerging, these are on-going challenges!




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VIRGÍNIA BRÁS GOMES