Workshop on Economic, Social and Cultural (ESC) rights

Workshop D: French Chairperson:

Michel Forst Rapporteuse:

Delphine Roch

Workshop D is composed of human rights defenders from francophone Africa (West and Central Africa), with the exception of Pierre Espérance from Haiti.

Following are the principal questions raised by the participants: 1. ESC rights are indivisible and inalienable:

The participants recognise that violations of ESC rights inevitably involve violations of civil and political (CP) rights as they are interdependent and overlap. For example: the abuse of wealth causes armed conflicts in a large number of countries and these conflicts in turn generate serious violations of civil and political rights.

In order to demonstrate that we can not defend civil and political rights without considering economic, social and cultural rights, one participant from the DRC gave the example of the freedom of the press: when speaking of the rights of journalists, economic questions usually arise; namely the cost of the paper.

The participants were unanimous concerning the indivisibility of all rights, however, they were divided over the following question (raised by the Senegalese participant): Should local NGOs work on all rights (ESC and CP), even when they are already specialised? (Some specialise in ESC rights, others in CP rights). Is there a risk of spreading too thinly, of losing our identities, in trying to achieve all? Would it not be sufficient to reinforce our collaboration, as NGOs working on CP rights, with NGOs specialised in ESC rights? 2. ESC rights are not perceived as rights:

In Africa (and equally for the participant from Haiti) ESC rights are not perceived as rights by the general public, their violation being seen, so to speak, as fate.

Moreover, even when a citizen is conscious of their entitlement to drinking water, to whom will he/she complain to if this basic right is denied them? How do we respond, as human rights defenders, to someone who is homeless? How do we advise them to defend their rights?

Recommendation:

Make the public aware that they have a right to healthcare, to education, to work etc… If the population is more aware of their rights, the authorities will therefore be obliged to take them into account. Efforts must be intensified in order to increase public awareness of ESC rights. 3. The problem of the State's political will regarding ESC rights:

Considering that in many African countries teachers are paid by their students' parents, what about the right to education? (When States generally allocate considerable budgets to the army). One participant from the DRC gave a telling example of the withdrawal of the State in terms of ESC rights: when his organisation submitted a documented report to the governor of the province concerning street children (pointing out that their right to education was being ridiculed) the latter directed him to address UNICEF!

Furthermore, there is the problem of the effectiveness of national poverty reduction strategies put in place by governments, usually under pressure from the IMF or the World Bank. The participants questioned the impact of these policies, insofar as they develop a strictly economic approach (and do not declare poverty illegal as suggested by Pierre Sané) and as civil society and the NGOs specialising in the protection of ESC rights are not involved in the elaboration and implementation of these strategies. In this case, do these policies truly reflect the national situation?

Recommendation:

Demand governments to include NGOs and civil society in the elaboration and the implementation of these national poverty reduction strategies in order to accurately assess the situation and increase their effectiveness. 4. The problem of the political context:

Can we defend ESC rights in a non-peaceful political area? The participants from the East of the DRC insisted on the disparity between countries and regions concerning access to ESC rights and on the fact that, according to them, in the context of war, democracy and the enjoyment of CP rights are the conditions necessary to guarantee ESC rights. In times of war, hospitals are ransacked, schools destroyed and teachers exiled. Access to ESC rights thus becomes illusory, according to the participants. Moreover, how do we speak of ESC rights to rebels who have taken control of the territory? It is only in a peaceful context that we can promote ESC rights.

However, the participant from Burundi, confronted with the same context of war in her country, did not share this opinion. She explained that her organisation had created a centre of research and study on ESC rights, believing that one cannot effectively defend human rights without tackling the question of ESC rights.