Human Rights after Rio+20: failure is not an option

The Rio+20 conference on Sustainable Development was originally intended to achieve consensus on a framework for sustainable and just global development. As the conference draws to a conclusion in the eponymous Brazilian city, the only consensus in evidence is that the international community has once again failed to reach a meaningful agreement, despite the critical importance of the event for current and future generations.

‘The Future We Want’ was the slogan on banners promoting the meeting, but the resulting outcome document is unlikely to deliver anything on this worthy promise. The agreement appears to have sacrificed a swathe of key human rights and social justice concerns, prompting former High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson to brand it a ‘failure of leadership’. While commitments to certain economic and social rights, including food, water, education and health were ‘reaffirmed’ in the document, language on the critical issues of transparency and accountability is far too weak to ensure these affirmations translate into meaningful change. References to freedom of speech and association have meanwhile been omitted altogether.

Disagreement between various countries over how the costs of sustainable development should be borne, and by whom, has effectively blocked agreement on a more ambitious plan that could provide for the needs of the current generation, without undermining the ability of future generations to provide for their needs too. Against a backdrop of multiple crises, widening inequality and potentially catastrophic environmental degradation, the international community faces a moral and political imperative to find a way past this deadlock. Indeed, as UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon recently warned, the world runs the risk of sabotaging its future if it does not rise to this challenge.

The agreement hammered out in Rio does not mark the end of the road, however. As the dust settles on what has been a largely disappointing event from the point of view of social justice advocates, governments at the meeting have at least committed to creating a set of sustainable development goals (SDGs). If this new framework is to succeed in shifting the world onto a fairer and more sustainable development path, it is of fundamental importance that it be grounded in human rights.

Past experience has made it abundantly clear that the failure to include human rights norms and principles into international development frameworks can lead to the most fundamental rights of vulnerable groups being undermined rather than promoted. Development-induced pollution of air, soil and water resources all too often leads to people’s rights to health, housing, food, water and even life being put at risk. CESR’s work in countries such as Ecuador has illustrated the devastating impact irresponsible business activities can have on both human rights and the environment. Indigenous peoples’ land rights are often trampled on in the rush to exploit resources, while forced evictions are carried out to clear the ground for infrastructure projects and biofuel production displaces traditional agriculture, thereby threatening the right to food.

The integration of human rights norms and standards into development plans can not only avert such lamentable outcomes, but also ensure that the fruits of development are more fairly distributed while also protecting the environment. Proper participation mechanisms, in accordance with the provisions of international human rights law, can be incorporated into both the design and implementation of development plans and policies so as to ensure these efforts serve to protect and fulfill the rights of ordinary people.

In an age when economic crisis is being used as a pretext in many countries to cut the types of social spending and development cooperation needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals, decision-makers should remember that international human rights law mandates them to deploy the maximum of available resources for the fulfillment of economic and social rights. This includes the generation of resources, through progressive taxation and whatever other means may be available, and the fullest possible international cooperation by both donor and recipient states. It is likewise imperative that existing aid promises be fulfilled.

Operationalizing the principles of equality and non-discrimination in development policy can likewise guarantee that economic progress serves to protect vulnerable sectors and diminish the disparities in our society, rather than exacerbate them. Given that rising inequality both within and between countries was one of the key contributory factors to the global economic crisis, the importance of tackling this issue cannot be understated. Entrenched inequality is not only a moral question - it is also represents an economic blight as it manifests in a dearth of opportunities which in turn translates into the wasting of our most valuable resource: people.

Moreover, the standards that form the human rights framework apply to states not only in their domestic policy-making, but also through their international interactions and their membership of international governance institutions.

It is to be hoped that the weakness of the document that has emerged from last week’s negotiations in Rio will be compensated by a more meaningful set of “SDGs”. The process of designing these goals, that will get underway at the UN General Assembly in September, may have determinative influence on the future course of global development, and thereby on the lives and wellbeing of people everywhere. With the deadline for the MDGs just a few years away, and dialogue on a new set of objectives already in full swing, the SDGs will also serve as a crucial precursor to further development negotiations at a pivotal moment in our collective evolution. Amidst warnings from a panel of Nobel laureates, ministers and scientists that a business-as-usual approach may “trigger abrupt and irreversible changes with catastrophic outcomes for human societies and life as we know it,” our leaders should be fully aware of the magnitude of the responsibility they shoulder. It is not only our future, but also that of coming generations, that is at stake.

Images: First photo shows Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan at the opening ceremony of the Rio+20 conference. Second photo shows pollution from an industrial plant flooding a fishing harbour in Washington State. Both images courtesy of UN Photo.

Niñas y niños en un mundo urbano: Derechos negados, oportunidades desperdiciadas

Se avecina rápidamente el día en que la mayoría de los niños y niñas del mundo crecerán en zonas urbanas, tal como ya lo hacen más de 1.000 millones de ellos. Muchos de estos lugares se ven divididos por las desigualdades en el disfrute de los derechos, la distribución del poder y recursos y en lo más profundo, las posibilidades de los niños y niñas de seguir vivos y salir adelante.

Como señala UNICEF en el Estado Mundial de la Infancia 2012: Niñas y niños en un mundo urbano, la desigualdad urbana nos enfrenta a diario. Cientos de millones de niños, niñas y jóvenes padecen privaciones y vulnerabilidades en los mismos centros urbanos que albergan las élites comerciales, políticas y culturales. Son demasiados los niños y niñas que pasan sus días buscando algo que vender entre las basuras o fabricando ladrillos para los hogares de otras personas. Sus noches las pasan en viviendas improvisadas bajo la amenaza del desalojo forzado o en la calle.

En teoría, los niños y niñas que viven en la pobreza en zonas urbanas cuentan con todos los derechos económicos, sociales, civiles, políticos y culturales que reconocen los instrumentos internacionales. De ellos, el que ha sido ratificado más rápida y ampliamente es la Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño. En realidad, estos niños y niñas padecen las peores condiciones y son los habitantes de ciudades más necesitados. Es decir, se afrontan a las mayores violaciones de sus derechos.

Y las violaciones empiezan desde el primer día.

En teoría, cada niño tiene el derecho a ser inscrito al nacer y tener un nombre, y el derecho a adquirir una nacionalidad y a conservar su identidad. En realidad, más de uno de cada tres nacimientos en las grandes y pequeñas ciudades del mundo quedan sin ser inscritos. En las zonas urbanas de África subsahariana y  Asia meridional, no se inscribe casi uno de cada dos. Los niños y niñas carentes de una identidad oficial resultan invisibles, por lo tanto, están mucho más expuestos a la explotación y maltrato, por ejemplo, al verse obligados a participar en un grupo armado, trabajar en condiciones peligrosas o a contraer matrimonio a temprana edad. Aun para los niños y niñas que evitan estas dificultades puede resultar imposible tener acceso a servicios vitales como la educación.

Contar con un certificado de nacimiento no garantiza el acceso a los servicios ni a la protección contra los abusos. Pero las obligaciones que encierra la Convención fácilmente pueden pasarse por alto cuando se considera, a todos los efectos, que asentamientos enteros no existen y las personas pueden ser despojadas de sus derechos como ciudadanos por falta de documentos oficiales.

En teoría, cada niño y niña tiene el derecho a sobrevivir y desarrollar hasta alcanzar todo su potencial. En realidad, casi 8 millones de niños murieron en 2010 antes de llegar a la edad de 5 años a causa de la neumonía, la diarrea y las complicaciones durante el parto. Los niños que viven en asentamientos urbanos improvisados, hacinados e insalubres, como son los barrios marginales, son especialmente vulnerables. En Bangladesh, datos de 2009 arrojan que la tasa de mortalidad de niños menores de 5 años en los barrios de tugurios es un 79% más alta que la tasa urbana nacional.

Según establece la Convención, cada niño y niña tiene el derecho a una educación. En realidad, los niños y niñas provenientes de zonas urbanas pobres están en desventaja y es así desde muy pequeños. Aunque el 25% de los niños y niñas en las zonas urbanas de Egipto asistieron a centros de enseñanza preescolar en 2005-2006, apenas el 4% de los niños en los hogares más pobres disfrutaron de acceso a este servicio.

Entre las violaciones más generalizadas a los derechos de la infancia se encuentran las condiciones de vida inadecuadas. Carecer de una vivienda decente y segura, así como de la infraestructura para sistemas de abastecimiento de agua y saneamiento condena a millones de niños y niñas en zonas urbanas a deficiencias de salud, un desarrollo físico o mental caracterizado por la desnutrición crónica o a la muerte. Incluso a las personas con documentos de identidad se les niegan acuerdos de alquiler apropiados u otros medios de protegerse a sí mismos y a sus hijos contra el desalojo arbitrario. Como observan colaboradoras en el presente informe, las mujeres y los niños y niñas a menudo han de trabajar cerca de sus viviendas para estar a la mano en caso de que el propietario o las autoridades locales aparezcan con excavadoras o matones a sueldo. Cuando se elimina la amenaza constante del desalojo forzado, los niños y niñas comienzan a ir a la escuela y los padres se sienten más seguros para realizar inversiones en viviendas adecuadas.

Evidentemente, otorgar una tenencia segura a familias que viven en asentamientos improvisados debe ser una prioridad. La inscripción de nacimientos se debe ofrecer a todos, al igual que los servicios deben alcanzar a todos los niños y niñas, sin importar si tienen o no alguna hoja de papel u otra. Los niños no deben ser sacrificados en el altar de la burocracia,  ni ha de usarse esta como ardid con la cual privar a los niños de sus derechos.

En teoría, entre los derechos de los niños y niñas está el de participar en la formulación de decisiones que les afectan a ellos y a sus comunidades. En realidad, se les niega este derecho, sobre todo si da la casualidad de que son pobres o vienen del barrio o la comunidad étnica equivocados.

La representación y la participación son derechos, pero si con esto no basta, el informe proporciona ejemplos de varias ciudades que demuestran que cuando se han incluido a los excluidos en los procesos de planificación urbana y toma de decisiones, esto ha dado paso a avances, por ejemplo, en el alfabetismo, la infraestructura y la seguridad. En el informe, se recomiendan formas en que los gobiernos, donantes y organizaciones internacionales pueden promover una gobernanza y vivencias inclusivas para provecho de todos, empezando por los niños y niñas.

Este punto no debe dejar de hacer eco en aquellos predispuestos a los argumentos instrumentales, puesto que la negación del derecho a participar excluye a quienes más tienen en juego, y a menudo los que más pueden ofrecer, del proceso de hallar soluciones que mejoren sus vidas y las de tantos otros.

El autor de este blog, Abid Aslam, es director del informe principal del Unicef, ‘Estado Mundial de la Infancia’. Foto: Una niña en Kirkuk, Iraq, arrastra la chatarra que su familia va a utilizar para reforzar su hogar: un pequeño espacio con cortinas en lugar de paredes, situado en el piso superior de un antiguo estadio de fútbol. © UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2316/Michael Kamber

Las opiniones expresadas en este blog son del autor, no reflejan necesariamente la posición oficial de CESR.

Children in an urban world: Rights denied, opportunities squandered

The day is rapidly approaching when the majority of the world’s children will grow up in urban areas, as more than one billion already do. Many of these places are riven by inequalities – in the enjoyment of rights, the distribution of power and resources and, most profoundly, children’s chances of staying alive and getting ahead.

As UNICEF notes in The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World, urban inequality confronts us daily. Hundreds of millions of children and young people endure deprivation and vulnerability in the very urban centres that are home to commercial, political and cultural elites. Too many spend their days picking through rubbish for something to sell or making bricks for other people’s homes. They spend their nights in makeshift dwellings under threat of eviction or on the street.

On paper, children living in urban poverty have the full range of economic, social, civil, political and cultural rights recognized by international instruments. The most rapidly and widely ratified of these is the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In reality, these children endure the worst conditions and have the greatest needs of any urban dweller. In other words, they face the greatest violations of their rights.

The violations begin on day one

On paper, every child has the right to be registered at birth and to have a name, the right to acquire a nationality and to preserve her or his identity. In reality, more than one in three children in the world’s cities and towns go unregistered at birth. In the urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, almost every other child is unregistered. Rendered invisible by the lack of an official identity, they are at vastly greater risk of exploitation and abuse: being forced into an armed group, hazardous work or child marriage, for example. Even those who avoid these perils may be unable to access such vital services as schooling.

Registration alone is no guarantee of access to services or protection from abuse. But the obligations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child can be easily disregarded when, in effect, entire settlements can be deemed not to exist and people can be stripped of their citizenship rights for want of papers.

On paper, every child has the right to survive and develop to her or his fullest potential, as well as the right to the highest attainable standard of living. In reality, nearly eight million children died in 2010 before reaching the age of five due to pneumonia, diarrhoea and birth complications. Those living in cramped and unsanitary informal urban settlements – slums – are particularly vulnerable. In Bangladesh, 2009 data show that the under-five mortality rate in slums was 79 per cent higher than the overall urban rate.

Under the Convention, every child has the right to an education. In reality, the odds are stacked against children from impoverished urban backgrounds – and from early on. While 25 per cent of children in Egypt’s urban areas attended kindergarten in 2005-2006, only four per cent of those from the poorest urban households enjoyed access to this service.

Inadequate living conditions are among the most pervasive violations of children’s rights. The lack of decent and secure housing and such infrastructure as water and sanitation systems condemns millions of children in urban areas to poor health, stunted physical or mental development, or death. Even people with identity papers may be denied proper rental agreements or other means of shielding themselves and their children against arbitrary eviction. As contributors to the report observe, women and children often must work near their dwellings so they are close at hand in case the local landlord or authorities appear with bulldozers or hired goons. When the constant threat of eviction is removed, children start going to school and parents feel more confident about investing in proper shelter.

Clearly, granting secure tenure to families living in informal settlements must be a priority. Registration must be extended to all – and services must be extended to all children regardless of whether they have this piece of paper or that. Children must not be sacrificed at the altar of bureaucracy, nor bureaucracy used as a ruse with which to deprive them of their rights.

On paper, children’s entitlements include the right to take part in making decisions that affect them and their communities. In reality, they are denied this right – especially if they happen to be poor or come from the wrong neighbourhood or ethnic community.

Representation and participation are rights, but if this were not enough in itself, the report provides examples from numerous cities that show that where the excluded have been included in urban planning and decision-making, advancements have followed – in literacy, infrastructure and safety, for example. It recommends ways in which governments, donors and international organizations can advance inclusive urban governance and life for the benefit of all, starting with children.

This point should not be lost on those more given to instrumentalist arguments; the denial of the right to participation excludes those with the most at stake – and often, the most to offer – from the process of finding solutions that improve their lives and those of countless others.

The author of this blog posting, Abid Aslam, is the  Editor of the UNICEF report ‘The State of the World’s Children: Children in an Urban World’. Photo shows girl in Kirkuk, Iraq, collecting scrap metal that her family will use to reinforce their home – a small space with curtains for walls on the top floor of a former football stadium. Image provided courtesy of Unicef. © UNICEF/NYHQ2007-2316/Michael Kamber

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the institutional position of CESR.