Exploitation Under Erasure: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Engage Economic Globalization

This article utilizes a human rights framework to investigate the construction of economic and social rights within reports from United Nations (UN) bodies. The author begins by framing the issues within feminist critiques of international law. Questions of the impact of economic globalization upon economic and social rights are considered in light of the differences between the official United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing) and the simultaneous Non-Governmental Organization Forum. The extent to which reports to the UN Commission on Human Rights recognize the impact of economic globalization upon women's economic and social rights is also assessed. The author concludes that the economic and social rights of women currently fail to exert an impact on the activities of transnational corporations and international financial institutions.