Chris Jochnick

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1994

Chris Jochnick

Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR)

http://www.cesr.org

New York, New York, United States

Civil and Human Rights

The Bold Idea:

CESR’s mission is to advocate for social justice using human rights tools and strategies. CESR is devoted to developing a human rights culture that integrates economic security, social equality, and political freedom as established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We build relationships with civil society groups and strengthen local initiatives for economic justice by connecting them with international institutions and legal mechanisms for protecting human rights.

The legal framework of economic and social rights recasts basic human needs for health, housing, education, food, a healthy environment, and work as enforceable human rights. It provides an umbrella for a diverse set of communities, organizations and activists to join together in demanding accountability and policy change from state and non-state actors in accordance with universal standards of law.  [CESR is still in operation and has spun off an independent organization in Latin America, Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales, also still in operation] 

Biography:

Chris Jochnick is the Director of the Private Sector Department at Oxfam America.  Mr. Jochnick is the co-founder of two non-profit organizations devoted to economic and social rights.  He has worked for over fifteen years on issues of human rights and corporate accountability, including seven years in Latin America supporting grassroots campaigns around extractive industries.  Prior to joining Oxfam, Mr. Jochnick worked as a corporate attorney with the Wall Street law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison.  Mr. Jochnick is a graduate of Harvard Law School, a former MacArthur Fellow and an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University.