Canada should continue to advocate for human rights, democracy, diversity, gender equality along with the other values that are central to the ten point agenda for eliminating global poverty outlined in response to question 1.
The abuse of human rights in its own right is an enormous global problem. It is also a major impediment to ending poverty. People who can organize themselves without fear of persecution are far more likely to insist on a reasonable return for their labour, particularly when it contributes to the wealth of domestic elites and transnational corporations.
Throughout Latin America, in the face of growing inequality, advocacy for labour, human and indigenous peoples rights is met with abuses by police and military forces, abuses which historically have been met with impunity. For example, during the past decade, more than 40,000 Colombians have been killed in politically motivated violence. Human rights groups in Colombia are documenting 20 killings or forced disappearances per day. In Guatemala, seven years after signing the Peace Accords, conditions of injustice and impunity continue with cases of human rights abuses.
Canada should recognize and abide by UN, OAS, ILO and other international conventions, and insist that other countries do the same, vigorously and consistently prosecuting human rights abuses and disbanding paramilitary groups. Canadian aid should be targeted at those who are working to build peaceful solutions and direct benefits to the poor. Canadian international cooperation organizations want the protection of internationally recognized labour rights and ILO to be central to the trade and investment practices of multilateral organizations. Improving living standards is a fundamental part of what development is all about.
The federal government should allocate additional resources to increase the capacity of the labour sector in Canada and overseas to support human rights, democracy and sustainable development. This should include a process for assessing and improving the impact of development assistance on core labour rights where these are most threatened.
International cooperation organizations in Canada are also concerned about gender equality and the protection of women and children. The face of poverty has been and continues to be overwhelmingly female – 70% of the 1.3 billion people who live on less than $1 a day are women. Women perform 2/3 of the world's work, receive less than 1% of the world's income, own less than 1% of the world's property.
The Government of Canada should support women organizing for their human rights in all aspects of foreign policy and through development assistance programs. Increased financial and policy resources should be made available for organizations promoting an end to violence against women and children.
Children who grow up malnourished, uneducated, abandoned, sold into prostitution, forced into child labour have few opportunities to make the world a better place. Their struggle is simply to survive. And the cycle of poverty is continued.
The federal government should increase investment in programs and education for Canadians that promote the rights of children around the world. Screening mechanisms should be developed that address the rights of children in all Canadian aid programs.
One of the most basic challenges facing people in poverty, particularly children, is food security. Hunger is one of the most basic and telling signs of poverty. The existence of widespread hunger, when enough food is produced to feed everyone, is an open wound in the fabric of the planet. The failure of governments to make greater collective progress in this area is unconscionable.
Canada should continue to work to entrench the right to food as the framework for tackling food security. Internationally, The World Food Summit commitments to reduce global hunger by half by 2015 (to reduce the number of hungry from 800 million to 400 million) should be implemented with specific benchmarks and timetables. Canadian foreign policy should support trade measures designed to protect small farmers, including support for developing countries’ ability to use simplified trade defences against unfairly subsidized food imports. In keeping with Canada’s own values and agrarian history, the federal government should support farmer-controlled marketing options, including non-profit and co-operative agencies.
As part of insisting that countries recognize and abide by international labour and human rights conventions, the federal government should undertake comprehensive social and environmental assessments of all major Canadian export credit initiatives (including those that fall under the Canada Account and those undertaken by the Export Development Corporation - EDC). These assessments should be public, undertaken independently of EDC, and examine human rights impacts on gender, labour, agricultural and other practices.
More generally, at the level of consultation and policy development, federal government policies and programs should be structured to ensure a more equitable gender balance and greater representation from labour, environment, human rights, development and other civil society sectors. Canada should continue its practice of including civil society representation in the official delegations to world conferences and events.
Recommendations in response to Question 10
1. Include a process for assessing and improving the impact of development assistance on core labour rights where these are most threatened.
2. Allocate additional resources to increase the capacity of the labour sector in Canada and overseas to support human rights, democracy and sustainable development.
3. Insist that countries recognize and abide by UN, OAS, ILO and other international conventions, vigorously and consistently prosecute human rights abuses and disband paramilitary groups. Canadian aid should be targeted at those who are working to build peaceful solutions and direct benefits to the poor.
4. Support women organizing for their human rights in all aspects of foreign policy and through development assistance programs.
5. Make increased financial and policy resources available for organizations promoting an end to violence against women and children.
6. Increase investment in programs and education for Canadians that promote the rights of children around the world.
7. Develop screening mechanisms that address the rights of children in all aspects of Canadian aid programs.
8. Continue to work to entrench the right to food as the framework for tackling food security. Internationally, World Food Summit commitments should be implemented with specific benchmarks and timetables.
9. Support trade measures designed to protect small farmers, including support for developing countries’ ability to use simplified trade defences against unfairly subsidized food imports, and support farmer-controlled marketing options, including non-profit and co-operative agencies.
10. Undertake comprehensive social and environmental assessments of all major Canadian export credit initiatives (including those that fall under the Canada Account and those undertaken by the Export Development Corporation - EDC). Make these assessments public and undertake them independently of EDC, examining human rights impacts on gender, labour, agricultural and other practices.
11. At the level of consultation and policy development, federal government policies and programs should be structured to ensure a more equitable gender balance and greater representation from labour, environment, human rights, development and other civil society sectors.
|
