The Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) is an international human rights NGO that aims to transform the dominant global economic system into one based on human rights standards that provides dignity for all people and protects the planet. The organization focuses its work specifically on issues of education, health, food and water, housing, rights in crisis, poverty, and inequality. The organization operates in 30 countries spread across all continents. In order to assure compliance with international human rights standards, CESR utilizes an interdisciplinary approach of legal and socioeconomic analysis to advocate issues and monitor, expose and hold governments accountable for violations in addition to providing the resources and legal documents to do so. The official mission of CESR is "to work for the recognition and enforcement of economic and social rights as a powerful tool for promoting social justice and human dignity." Organizational background CESR maintains an international board of directors, encompassing leadership from South Africa, the United States, Colombia, Japan, Bangladesh, Sweden, and Australia. Organizational history CESR was founded in 1993, by Roger Normand, Sarah Zaidi and Chris Jochnick. CESR was established with the aim of bringing the human rights community back to its roots in the belief of the interdependence of all human rights established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The organization has continued to carry out the original vision since its creation yet it has evolved its strategies to adapt and meet the consistent transformations and evolution in the field of human rights as well as world issues at large. In the years from 1993 to 1996, CESR mainly focused on research and advocacy projects to prove the importance of economic and social rights and convened a series of discussions and workshops with human rights, development and social justice groups to challenge the conceptual issues stating economic and social rights were not a fundamental and equal component of the human rights framework . The organization also launched a project on health and the environment in Ecuador. Between 1997 and 2000, CESR established and strengthened projects in the United States, Latin America and the Middle East. This was also a significant period of strengthening the organization itself through extreme networking, consultations and coalition-building with many local groups and large organizations such as Amnesty International, CARE, Oxfam International, etc. From 1998 to 2004, CESR extended its projects and areas of operations. It also