Within the framework of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Social Watch organized a workshop on ESCR and public policies with main focus on the models to combat poverty and the perspective of human rights. Members of the Social Watch Network from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Tanzania and Uruguay took part in this event.
As a diverse and too large to encompass phenomenon, the World Social Forum (WSF) also involves contradictions. Or, at least, its own peculiarities. One of these is to carry out, at the same time and at different places, activities on the same issues. In any case, this is just a mirror of reality: different organizations which sometimes do not even know each other are working on many of the same issues. The Forum is supposed to be prompting their meeting, but this not always happens. The main reason is that, in spite of the fact that they share the same concerns, the urgent needs are not the same for organizations from different parts of the developed or developing world.
That was noticed on the morning of Sunday 30 (by the way, it is so easy to forget what day of the week it is at the forum!): while Social Watch invited to participate in the workshop on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) and public policies, another workshop on the campaign for the facultative Protocol on ESCRs was taking place in another area within the large space on which the WSF is being carried out, on the shore of Lake Guaíba in Porto Alegre. This was not supposed to happen, but - as it often happens in this mega-event - there was a change in schedule.
The problem when this happens is that while the issues of each meeting complement each other, they "compete" for the same public, which could be interested in both proposals. However, all this does not detract workshops from its own merit, having their respective organizers little left to do about it.
The need for social watch
Graciela Dede, member of the Social Watch coordinating team in Montevideo, Uruguay, was the event's moderator and the one in charge of giving an introduction to the work carried out by Social Watch, an international network of citizens' organizations aimed at monitoring state policies with regards to poverty and gender equity. In order to so, Social Watch takes into account the commitments undertaken by countries through the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen) and the Beijing Platform for Action, in 1995. By asking governments, the United Nations (UN) system and the international institutions to render accounts regarding the fulfilment of national, regional and international commitments, the network elaborates indicators on the advances and regressions in each country around the world.
In this way, and taking into account that poverty - in all its dimensions - implies a virtual violation of all fundamental human rights, is that the ESCRs are an important part of the work carried out by Social Watch.
Pablo Ceriani, Director of the ESCRs Programme of the Centre for Social and Legal Studies (CELS) in Argentina, was in charge of giving a general framework and map of the situation, as well as a brief introduction to the workshop's topic. Ceriani mainly explained why it is important to talk about human rights and their protection when analysing state policies, not only those related to social issues but also the economic, taxing, of access to justice, etc. He stressed the importance of defining which is the function of the state, on the basis of the idea of common good and fulfilment of people's basic needs. And the need to guarantee the access to human rights without discrimination, in spite of the predominance of neoliberal policies. He wondered "what do we have democratic systems for if not to make those representatives elected by people guarantee people's human rights".
Ceriani stated that there are several elements to be taken into account when analysing public policies with respect to ESCRs. The first element is that of information as a human right in itself. "The state should produce information. It is impossible to elaborate public policies without knowing what is the reality of the society in which those policies are going to be implemented. How is it possible to know what is being carried out without previous information?".
Another key element, according to Ceriani, is people's right to have access to that information as a way to control those policies and, therefore, evaluate the state government performance. And, finally, the principle of non-discrimination and equality before the law.
An analysis of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which has not been acknowledged by all countries, shows that there are three aspects signatory states should fulfil to be in agreement with its principles: minimum core content (to ensure the basic fulfilment of rights), prohibition of non-regression (not to regress in the fulfilment of those rights, which would be translated into avoiding the worsening of people's living conditions), and obligation of progressiveness (to advance in improving people's living conditions).
"These are essential elements for ESCRs to reach all people". But there is more: it is necessary to guarantee the due process, that is to say, that many states do not offer measures to make legal complaints (demandability) upon the refusal of the Executive Power of a country to ensure a specific human right. The International Covenant on ESCRs also includes a special obligation (recommendation?) that all states should put their public policies at the service of the most vulnerable sectors of society.
Ceriani highlighted another important question to be taken into account: the right of society to participate in the design of those public policies that will be affecting it.
Living within the minimum level: bread to shut mouths
Another characteristic of the WSF: at this point, the workshop - which was already attended by about 25 people, although some more would be joining it later - had to be moved to another tent located some 50 metres away from its original location. The reason was that the noise coming from a nearby mobilisation made it impossible to keep listening without an amplification system.
Soon after arriving at the new tent, the organizers distributed bottles of water among the attendance (something unusual in this forum) as a way to combat the nearly 35 degrees of thermal sensation.
It was the turn of Lena Lavinas, professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), who was very critical towards the public policies to combat poverty, "we are walking in the opposite direction of ESCRs". "The idea of ensuring a 'minimum' is a problem, rights should be ensured in their integrity". With reference to the fact that public policies to combat poverty are focused on providing assistance to the poorest among the poor, Lavinas assured that this is not enough: "if we want to fight against hunger and poverty, more universal policies are needed, otherwise we are just facing the reproduction of inequality".
She showed irritation at the methodology used by governments and the UN itself, aimed at carrying out a selection between poor and non-poor. "This distances us from a fairer and more equitable system, from a system of universal protection. We are creating a world divided between developed countries, where the rights of society as a whole are protected, and developing countries, where only the minimum essential is sought to be ensured for the poor (that of living on at least one dollar a day)". This not only brings about large inequalities, but also deepens the already existing problems such as those of immigration, and she gave as an example the recent case of France where 6,500 children, aged between 4 and 14 were arrested for entering illegally from poor countries.
Lavinas advocated in favour of ESCRs as an alternative discourse to that of international financial institutions and of the United States government, constantly striving for world leadership on the wrong issues. "We need to be more aggressive", she said. "We do not need to transfer income to the poor but to make radical, true and integral changes".
The participation of some of those attending the workshop allowed to touch some important matters, such as the fact that the reduction of governments in terms of social expenditure is in response, to a great extent, to the guidelines of international financial institutions. Reference was also made to the importance of the integration of "new rights", which were acknowledged following the approval of the Covenant on ESCRs, such as is the case of the environmental, sexual and reproductive rights.
A 19-year-old girl from Paraguay expressed that, in her country, to live on one dollar a day means to have access only to some bread and milk, "and to eat them cold, because it would not be enough to pay for the gas bill". The same as Lavinas, she expressed her disagreement with the ameliorative policies that, in Paraguay's case, mean to maintain 1.5 million people living in poverty. "The same agent that cuts out arm, provides us then with just one band-aid. It is like giving us bread to shut our mouths", she energetically stated.
The workshop's second session was devoted to review models of policies to combat poverty from a human rights approach. National experiences were offered by members of the Social Watch network: Domitille Delaplace, of Equipo Pueblo (Mexico), Pablo Ceriani of CELS (Argentina), Rehema Sameji of the Women's Legal Aid Centre (Tanzania), John Foster of the North-South Institute (Canada) and again Lena Lavinas from Brazil.
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