ABSTRACT
Drawing on a case in Peru, this article examines four strategies used by human rights NGOs in their work. In so doing, it connects external challenges to the promotion of economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights with internal challenges to the way the human rights movement chooses to see itself. First, the value of using data and indicators in documentation has not been widely realized. Second, important advances have been achieved with respect to enforcing ESC rights, but there are limitations to courtcentric approaches, which are relevant to all human rights. Third, shifting advocacy beyond the adversarial dyad with the state to address more
* Alicia Ely Yamin, J.D., M.P.H., is Director of Research and Investigations at Physicians for Human Rights and an Instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health. Yamin is on the Boards of the Center for Economic and Social Rights and Mental Disability Rights International, as well as on the advisory board of the Center for Policy Analysis on Trade and Health. She has worked with NGOs in the United States and Latin America for over fifteen years and has published several books and dozens of articles on health and human rights in both English and Spanish. At the time of this writing, she was residing in Latin America and working with NGOs on documentation, advocacy, analysis, and education relating to the intersections of health, development policies, and human rights.
