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/** reg.elsalvador: 134.0 **/
** Topic: Proceso 547: Human Rights **
** Written  1:21 pm  Jan 25, 1993 by cidai@huracan.cr in cdp:reg.elsalvador **
From: cidai@huracan.cr (Centro de Informacion Documentacion y Apoyo a la Invest. - UCAJSC)
Subject: Proceso 547: Human Rights

Center for Information, Documentation and Research Support (CIDAI)
Central American University (UCA)
San Salvador, El Salvador
 
PROCESO 547
January 20, 1993
 
IDHUCA REPORT:
How much poverty can the wings of freedom bear? (Part I)
 
     Once again, from January 18-22, the capital of Costa Rica
hosted an important human rights event: the Regional Meeting for
Latin America and the Caribbean, in preparation for the World
Conference on Human Rights in June, 1993. In the message read
during the inauguration of the regional forum, the Executive
Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (CEPAL), Gert Rosenthal, expressed hope that our
countries "can make a creative contribution to the debate which
will take place in Vienna during the World Conference on Human
Rights."
     The origins of this world summit go back to 1990. On December
18 of that year, the U.N. General Assembly issued resolution
45/155, convoking the event for 1993, 25 years after the first
meeting of its kind in Teheran. The objectives of this second World
Conference are:
a) To study and evaluate human rights programs implemented since
the passing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and to
identify the obstacles to new progress in that area and how they
can be overcome;
b) To study the relationship between development and the universal
enjoyment of economic, social, cultural, civil and political
rights, recognizing the importance of creating conditions under
which all can enjoy those rights, enumerated in the International
Human Rights Pacts;
c) To study procedures useful in improving the application of the
existing human rights norms and instruments;
d) To evaluate the effectiveness of the methods and mechanisms used
by the United Nations in the area of human rights;
e) To make concrete recommendations for improving the effectiveness
of the activities and mechanisms of the United Nations in the area
of human rights, by means of programs aimed at promoting,
stimulating and overseeing respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms; and
f) To make recommendations for ways to ensure that the necessary
financial and other resources are available for the activities of
the United Nations in the promotion and protection of fundamental
human rights and freedoms.
     These ambitious goals have required a superhuman effort of
preparation, which included the regional preparatory meeting held
in San Jose, similar to the one held in Tunis in November 1992,
covering Africa, and the one to be held in Bangkok next March, for
Asia. Due to the structure of the United Nations, both the regional
preparatory meetings and the world summit will be attended by
representatives of governments. Thus, in the recent Latin American
and Caribbean event, the Salvadoran delegation was headed by the
director of the official Human Rights Commission, Benjamin Cestoni.
However, that did not exclude the participation -as observers- of
the director of ONUSAL's human rights division, Dr. Garcia-Sayan,
along with one delegate each from nine Salvadoran non-governmental
organizations.
     The initial agenda proposed to the plenary contained several
outstanding points. In the first place, the need to identify
existing obstacles to the full enjoyment of human rights, along
with (in accordance with the purposes and principles of the U.N.
Charter) contemporary tendencies and new challenges for the full
enjoyment of all human rights, particularly by the most vulnerable
sectors. But principally, we will address the point on the
relationship between development, democracy and the universal
enjoyment of all human rights, taking into account the
interdependence and indivisibility of economic, social, cultural,
civil and political rights.
     This last point held much of the attention of the participants
in the regional meeting. At the very start, during the
inauguration, we heard the words of CEPAL: "How do we reconcile the
tangible gains seen in the area of civil and political rights with
the backsliding seen in economic and social rights?" Rosenthal
added, "this is one of the questions which, from the point of view
of our region, requires a response. We must admit that preventing
the violation of the civil or political rights of individuals and
communities is not the same as ensuring that all persons and their
families are afforded the right to an adequate standard of living,
which includes adequate food, clothing and housing, and continuing
improvement in their standards of living. The first is more of an
ethical, cultural, political and institutional issue for society;
the second also has to do with how resources are allocated.
Although political and civil rights and economic and social rights
can be covered by different legal statutes in terms of their
character, demandability and means of protection, both aspects are
part of an integral vision of development as well as an integral
vision of the fundamental rights of individuals."
     In the view of the Executive Secretary of CEPAL, "if we do not
fully realize economic and social rights, the hard-won civil and
political rights will tend to become a dead letter for sectors with
fewer resources and lower levels of education and information. By
now it has been amply shown that those sectors have much more
restricted access to justice and to the possibility of defending
themselves from attack by others or by the State. Poverty and the
lack of exercise of citizens' rights often go together. It is a
fundamental requirement to change this situation in order to
stabilize the region's democracies and achieve truly universal
citizenship."
     According to Antoine Blanca, U.N. Assistant Secretary General
for Human Rights and Secretary General of the World Conference on
Human Rights, the great challenges at the end of the century can be
found in "the protection of vulnerable groups, support and
strengthening of democracy, economic and social development,
humanitarian assistance, the preservation of the environment and
peaceful conflict resolution." The close ties of these issues to
human rights shows how indivisible they all are, both in individual
and collective terms, both civil and political as well as economic,
social and cultural. And facing these challenges requires an
enormous dose of concrete solidarity.
     "Latin America and the Caribbean," said Blanca, "have had an
experience over the last decade that could be termed paradoxical:
the return of democracy to many lands which lived under military
dictatorships and which have suffered the most serious economic
crisis in history, made worse by the weight of foreign debt." We
must recognize that the structural adjustment policies have had a
social cost which has harmed the least privileged and most
vulnerable sectors of society. Extreme poverty, the reduction of
primary health care availability, the deterioration of basic
education, the unacceptable situation of street urchins, are all
problems which must be foreseen as part of an integrated vision.
Democracy must go hand in hand with lasting economic and social
development, both nationally and internationally. Otherwise, in the
magnificent words of the former president of the U.N. General
Assembly, Dante Caputo: "How much poverty can the wings of freedom
bear?"
 

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