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NAWL | ANFD
151, Slater Street, suite 408
Ottawa, ON K1P 5H3
613.241.7570 (Tel)
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Social and Economic Rights for Women
NAWL supports women’s struggle for the right to substantive equality, including social and economic equality. International human rights law shows that
women’s right to equality is designed to address
women’s poverty and economic inequality.
Gosselin v. Québec… a disappointing Supreme Court decision on the right to social assistance.
The Gosselin v. Québec case is about a Québec welfare regulation that provided drastically reduced benefits (170$ a month) for persons under thirty years of age who were considered able to work.
NAWL intervened before the Supreme Court. We argued that when the government reduces social assistance to a below-subsistence level, women are harmed in specific ways. Women’s equality rights create a duty for governments to make sure that laws and regulations do not have an adverse impact on women.
We consulted women living in poverty or working closely with women living in poverty about the case.
The Supreme Court rendered its decision in December 2002. The majority of the Court did not find that the reduced welfare rate violated Ms. Gosselin’s constitutional right to equality or to security of the person. However, dissident judges did recognize that lack of adequate social assistance may, and in this case, did result in a violation of the right to security of the person.
Discrimination on the basis of social condition
In December of 1999, NAWL presented a Brief to the Canadian Human Rights Act Review Panel.
We recommended inclusion of social condition as a protected ground of discrimination under the Act.
We also told the Review Panel that if the Human Rights Act is to make a difference for the most disadvantaged women in Quebec and in Canada, it must also include social and economic rights.
Women and the Social Deficit
Canada adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1976. Countries like Canada that have signed the International Covenant must submit progress reports to an International Committee. Groups like NAWL can also present alternative reports to the Committee. In November of 1998, NAWL submitted a report called: Women and the Social Deficit.
NAWL’s report underlines how in spite of the relative wealth of Canada as a country, many women in Canada are actually getting poorer. This is especially true for certain groups of women such as Aboriginal women and single mothers.
Press Releases
June 28, 2006
NAWL Calls on Prime Minister Harper to respect
international law on social and economic rights.
December 19, 2002
The Gosselin Decision: A Divided Court
Jurisfemme Articles
Winter 2003
“Majority Embraces Stereotype of Poor”, by Shelagh Day
Winter 2003
“What’s Next: Recommendations from the Kim Rogers Inquest”, by Kim Brooks
Fall 2002
“Finding Answers, The Kimberley Rogers Inquest”, by Kim Brooks
Summer 2002
“Test-Case Litigation, Social and Economic Rights, and the American Convention on Human Rights”, by Reem Bahdi
Winter 2002
“Poverty is a Human Rights Violation”, by Shelagh Day
Spring/Summer 2001
“Women's Poverty, Women's Equality: Supreme Court to Rule on one Woman's Claim to Social and Economic Rights”, by Rachel Cox
Spring/Summer 2001
“Kim Rogers: Death in the Modern Day Pauper's Prison”
Spring/Summer 2001
“The Women's Economic Equality Project”, by Leilani Farha and Shelagh Day
Winter 2001
“The Women's Economic Equality Project”, by Leilani Farha
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