Seminar 'Mensenrechten en de Millennium Ontwikkelingsdoelen' (Engels)
(gesproken woord geldt)
Ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to The Hague and to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is great to have you here on this unique occasion. We are very pleased that Ms Navanethem Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, is taking part in our seminar, along with many experts in the field of human rights and the Millennium Development Goals.
MDGs and human rights. Both are priorities of the Dutch government, and both are close to my heart. When I became Minister for Development Cooperation two
years ago, I immediately poured all my energies into the MDGs. I had been shocked by a report describing how the MDGs were going off the rails in various countries and I resolved to target the areas that are crucial for reaching these internationally agreed goals: Growth and Equity, Gender and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Climate and Energy, and Security and Development. And shortly after I took office, we launched the Schokland Fund. It finances innovative partnerships and civil society initiatives targeting one or more of the MDGs. Development and the MDGs are not just the concern of governments and NGOs – they are our common concern. And the great thing about the MDGs is this: 189 countries have rallied together in support of goals, targets and deadlines for poverty reduction. The MDGs are an opportunity to improve people’s lives in a very real way. The challenge is to achieve maximum progress in the run-up to 2015.
The fact that I have devoted myself to the MDGs over the past two years does not mean that I have been ignoring human rights. Quite the reverse, in fact!
The rights based approach to development and reaching the MDG’s rejects the notion that people living in poverty can only meet their basic needs as passive recipients of charity.
That would be an essentially wrong approach to development cooperation and reaching the people should be the MDG’s active subjects of their own development, as they seek to realize their rights.
Development organisations – like my own – should seek to build people’s capabilities to do so, by guaranteeing their rights to the essentials of a decent life: education, health care, water and sanitation, protection against violence, including domestic violence.
We should stand – in mu view in very practical terms – be a rights based approach which supports the debate about equity and justice – in principles – endorsed by
the international community. In fact, such a rights based approach should help governments and citizens to pursue Justice.
Asserting rights can be slow, legal and peaceful, but after involved moments of confrontation and struggle! When the Powerful resist, often with force.
I am honored that Ms Pillay is here, who knows about this first hand because of the struggle against Apartheid.
But we know just having travelled in the poor townships of South Africa last week that even when dramatic evens are over, the struggle and negotiating for the fulfillment of rights continues. That struggle sometimes starts by speaking out, specifically, in very concrete cases.
Where necessary, I also try to speak out against human rights abuses. Silent diplomacy can be useful, but mostly active discussions are necessary. Today we speak out against the lack of access in Sri Lanka to the refugee camps. We speak out against new settlements in the Occupied Territories, which limits the possibilities for Palestinians to reach the MDG’s. For instance in Mali, where I brought up the horrendous practice of female circumcision during my talks with President Touré and we discussed
concrete legal and practical solutions. In Colombia, where I raised the issue of the violation of the rights of trade unions and children. And most recently, in Burundi, where I spoke out in support of gay rights in talks with President Nkurunziza.
As you know, the Dutch government has a constitutional obligation to promote the international legal order. So it has long been committed to the progressive development of international law in general – not forgetting the field of sustainable development. A good example is the declaration on this theme that the Netherlands and Bangladesh brought to the UN’s attention in 2002. On a more practical level, in March 2008 the Netherlands recognised the right to drinking water and sanitation as a human right. This is a significant step forward in efforts to achieve the seventh Millennium Development Goal. It gives NGOs and lobbying organisations real leverage to persuade governments to do more for the most vulnerable in society. Finally, in April 2007, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, I personally advocated using international legal instruments to tackle the impact of climate change. Here the wealthy nations have a historical responsibility.
Every day, my colleagues and I in the Dutch government work hard to improve human rights. We do not succeed always, but we do it out of a wholehearted conviction that all human beings everywhere have the right to a life of dignity. That human rights abuses are a disgrace to us all and that they destabilise regions and countries. And that we will also have to look at our own human rights record and be self-critical about the many double standards in the reality of human rights. Do believe that human rights and the MDGs are inextricably linked. To put it simply: without human rights, especially Economic, Social and Cultural rights there will be no MDGs. And without MDGs, there will be no human rights, either – as we learn from bitter experience.
Let me illustrate this with examples from the theme of Growth and Equity. We tend to think of this solely in terms of growth percentages, currency and exchange rates. These are important issues, of course, but I believe there are others, too, such as stamping out inequality and ending exclusion. The present financial and economic crisis hurts the poorest, who have no stake in any bonus system and take no part in the system of casino capitalism. It’s therefore essential to talk about empowering disadvantaged groups. Many countries still have a lot of catching up to do. In areas that have everything to do with human rights such as the right to food and the right to social security. During this seminar, you will be discussing whether human rights instruments can effectively be deployed to achieve these aims. I look forward to hearing your conclusions.
In times of sometimes cut throat competition in a globalized world, socio-economic rights are essential for reaching the MDG’s.
We should therefore be busy in multilateral forums, like ILO and WTO. But also the Commission on the Status of Women need to campaign for the rights of women. You don’t need me to tell you that in certain parts of the world, their situation is grim. Take for instance the systematic abuse of the most basic sexual and reproductive rights, or the way in which payment, property and inheritance laws often discriminate against women. I am particularly shocked by the sexual violence in many parts of the world which required legal action and opening up the international possibilities of prosecution of rape as instrument of warfare.
Another good example of our multilateral efforts is the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. As you probably know, the Netherlands supported this Protocol when it was adopted in December 2008 by the United Nations. In many respects, the Protocol is a milestone. Probably the most important aspect is that with an inbuilt right to complain about violations of these rights, the Protocol enables people to advance social justice by legal means. This is extremely important if they lack the political means to do so. I look forward to the Netherlands signing the Protocol this autumn.
Finally a start is being made by giving individuals recourse in the socio-economic area.
Finally, it is important to bring together as many different parties as possible. An example of that is the Girl Child Conference, which was held here in The Hague earlier this year. At the conference, dozens of NGOs, researchers and politicians discussed how to combat violence against girls and women. First steps are being taken as I just mentioned.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Despite all our initiatives, I am sorry to say that in many of the places I visit, human rights and the MDGs are still often regarded as separate worlds, like ships that pass in the night. I think that's regrettable and also wrong. After all, they both spring from the same universal need for human dignity, prosperity and peace – values that underpin international law and are so well summarised in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Millennium Declaration. So it is hardly surprising that the various human rights instruments and the MDGs are very similar. They all seek to put an end to hunger, increase access to education and health care, and improve the position of women, children and other vulnerable groups. It is no coincidence that each MDG has a matching international human rights instrument, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women or the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
But despite all the similarities, there are also striking differences between them. Ratifying human rights treaties entails binding legal obligations, for which governments must be accountable to their citizens. By contrast, the MDGs are a political obligation on states: a best efforts obligation for which – ultimately – they are not answerable to anyone which creates the need to make that accountability clear in times of the severest economic crisis. It is precisely the differences which make the combination of MDGs and human rights so interesting within development cooperation policy. That is why this seminar is addressing the question: how can we make the synergy between human rights and MDGs tangible and how can we make it work? A question that is both simple and complex.
Ladies and gentlemen,
In these times of economic crisis, human rights activists and development workers need to work together even more than in the past. Now, more than ever before, every effort must be made to protect the rights of the weakest. Now, in particular, development resources must be used more effectively than ever before. If we fail to do this, the consequences will be dire.
On the eve of the G20 summit, the President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, warned of large-scale ‘development in reverse’ in parts of Africa, South America and South Asia if immediate action to address the crisis was not taken. Hundreds of millions, he feared, would fall back into poverty, in some cases extreme poverty, if countries did not receive help implementing countercyclical policies. I share his fear. Failure to act by the international community will result in a humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale, and will delay the MDGs by many years. We cannot and must not let this happen! So I applaud the fact that the G20 focused explicitly on the plight of the poorest of the poor, that a great deal of money was released to support them, and that the Secretary-General of the UN created a special commission under the chairmanship of the Nobel prizewinner Joseph Stiglitz to find solutions and to keep the matter high on the political agenda. I am proud to have recently been appointed special envoy to this commission.
You may rest assured that the Dutch government, and I personally, will do all we can to prevent a large-scale humanitarian disaster as a result of the economic crisis. We are doing that by taking measures aimed at the short-term for example by contributing to the Rapid Social Response Fund which was created by the Worldbank. This Fund serves as a safety net for the poorest and most vulnerable population groups in developing countries.
But I don't want it to stop there. I want to see how we can do more in everyday development to link human rights and MDGs. How we as donors can encourage our partner countries to put their human rights commitments into practice. For example by placing employment creation as a central objective of economic and social policies for sustainable poverty alleviation. This is crucial if we are to improve the living conditions of people worldwide and if we want to reach the first MDG. Opportunities for productive employment are required to achieve poverty reduction, education for all, gender equality and the empowerment of women, and productive work for young people. The poor cannot afford not to work. But low productivity work, carried out in poor conditions and without a voice for workers and employers, yields low incomes and keeps people trapped in poverty and disease. The MDGs give specific attention to “decent work” and put the focus on youth. The concept of “decent work” refers to productive and freely chosen employment, respecting the fundamental principles and rights at work as enabling human rights. It must involve social protection, which protects incomes and releases creative human energy. And decent work ensures participation for employers and workers through social dialogue. Here lies the essential link between the MDG’s and economic and social rights.
Helping countries to put these human rights commitments into practice is a collective challenge for donors, civil society and partner countries. After all, it is the duty of governments to be accountable to their citizens and their parliaments. Of course, their efforts will depend on the means at their disposal, but also on their political will. That's why donors should continue to call partner countries to account for their efforts to provide basic services and economic opportunities for the poor.
And within the various ongoing policy dialogues, donors should encourage countries to fulfill their human rights obligations. For example by offering support for reporting on compliance with the ICESCR, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. And by helping them to implement the recommendations of the ESOCUL Committee, the Rights of the Child Committee and the CEDAW Committee. That makes sense, given the major overlap between the recommendations and development planning in sectors like education, law and order, water and so on. But there are countless other ways of deploying human rights instruments to help countries achieve the MDGs more rapidly. A sectoral approach is one way. In 2008, for instance, the Netherlands recognised the right to water, and we are now looking to see whether our bilateral development pilot projects can be implemented under that right. In this seminar, we want to explore ways of fleshing out initiatives like these. Because sectoral water policies can only work when they empower users and give them rights.
Of course, this is not just a matter for governments and western NGOs. People in the partner countries must call their governments to account about fulfilling their international human rights obligations. They must claim their right to access to services and economic opportunities. As users of these services, they are in a better position than anyone else to dialogue on the policy, the chosen priorities and the progress of projects – provided they are given the information they need, of course. And we know that this too is an area where a great deal of work still needs to be done.
That's why I also think it’s important for donors to play a part in making and holding governments accountable.
Governments around the world, not just in recipient countries.
I hope that you will be talking about this later today or tomorrow. After all, this seminar provides a wonderful opportunity to put radar systems into those two ships I was talking about, so that they can spot each other in the dead of night. I wish you all a very productive seminar and I can already promise you that its outcomes will be used to take tangible steps to link Dutch and European efforts on human rights and the MDGs more effectively.
Redistributing economic and political power more fairly is often the first step towards disrupting the self-perpetuating cycle of inequality.
Thousands of people are still dying of AIDS per day in South Africa, millions of mothers are dying giving birth, almost none of the women raped in Eastern Congo has recourse to a judge, thousands of people are loosing their jobs around the world outside there own fault.
This together might jeopardize the achievement of the MDG’s by 2015. A rights based approach must and should counter this. That is the nexus between MDG’s and human rights that is now so essential.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes it so important for me to announce Ms Navanethem Pillay and I admire her tireless efforts for human rights. A week and a half ago, I visited her native land, South Africa: the beautiful country where she began her career, and was the first woman to open her own law practice. She worked for social organisations campaigning for women's rights and a host of other economic, social and cultural rights. Later on, as you well know, she became a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and until August 2008, she was a judge at the International Criminal Court here in the Hague.
Navanethem,
It’s my great pleasure to invite you to take the floor.