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People in solidarity …can’t be beaten
Who protects rights of the poor??
LCHR publishes the issue No. 34 of social and economic series entitled “ people in solidarity can’t beaten….social and economic rights are in danger”. It issues this report just two months before WSSD in South Africa, where delegates from 189 countries will participate, to examine the suitable policies for eliminating impoverishment. We try to warn from the disastrous impacts of the economic liberalization policies on all people. In addition, the center will participate in the public trials that NGOs will organize in Johannesburg to examine the impacts of these policies that deprive millions of the poor from their basic needs.
This report reviews the direct impacts of structural adjustment and economic liberalization policies through what is called globalization. It mentions to the most important aspect of these impacts “rising unemployment” that are at high percentages in the whole world. In the developing countries, this rising is connected with applying conditions of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank represented in structural adjustment and economic liberalization programs, for example, half of the countries in Latin America witnessed rising unemployment through the eighties and nineties while receiving important and continuous loans from the IMF.The report mentions to rising unemployment in Egypt that reaches five million[1] unemployed concurrently with the implementation of privatization programs in the public sector, dismissing laborers from factories and liberalizing the agrarian sector that are the same steps that the World Bank imposes as a condition for giving or rescheduling loans.
The report mentions “increasing poverty” as one of the direct impacts of globalization that the developing countries always suffer from poverty despite their adoption to structural adjustment programs along a decade. For example, only 3/5 of the inhabitants in these countries enjoy basic health services, 1/3 of them enjoy pure water and ¼ of them lack adequate houses. In Egypt, the percentage of poverty reaches 38.8% most of them in the rural areas.
Real low wages resulted from implementing the new economic policies is one of the aspects of violating social and economic rights. The real wages decrease in most of the African countries since the beginning of eighties (%60-50). Egypt achieves number of procedures to decrease the budget in addition to ascetical policies that the government follows whose aspects are the second and third stages of sales taxis.
The report reviews “decreasing the public expenditure in social services” as the most dangerous aspect of violating social and economic rights of the person. This violation affects the rights of food, health, housing and education that the agricultural policy turns from alimentary production for local consumption to be for export and attracting foreign currency that leads to malnutrition especially between the poor. The same thing occurs in education that the percentage of illiteracy in the countryside reaches 50% and 58.2% in the urban areas. About health conditions in the world, its public expenditure decreases that affects negatively health conditions. The IMF and WB fail to protect budgets of health, food and education from the public financial pressure while designing structural adjustment programs considered as gross fault in the fields of the public policies. These decreases have negative effects on the social progress that impact the economic production of human resources, moreover, it pushes the marginal people to offend the government. For example, drugs’ trade in Colombia and Bolivia connects closely with the social corrosion. Despite the high population in Egypt, the public expenditure in education increases from 1981 to 1997 “about 17 years” from 11.2% to 12.5% only. Moreover, the inhabitants suffer from low wages that deprive them from enjoying adequate housing especially after the governmental withdrawal away this field as one of the main features of structural adjustment programs. About healthcare, the public expenditure reaches 4% “22% for prior healthcare, 15% for preventive services and 61% for treatment programs in hospitals”.
The report mentions to “violating laborers’ rights” in the whole world especially in poor countries that the percentage of child labor increases in addition to issuing more legislation that violates laborers’ rights in work, wage, forming syndicates, strikes and social insurance. It mentions to the new unified labor law that the government issues that abuses laborers and violates their different rights.
It reviews “increasing internal and external debts”, for example, the African debts rise from $176 billion in 1982 to $296 billion in 1992 and from $344 billion in 1997 to $350 billion in 1998. These debts reach 66% of the local production. On the other hand, these new programs lead to destruction of vast areas of the natural resources in Cameron. For example, about 150 authorized company working in field of wood “23 of them are local companies” cut trees for commercial interests. The WB supports Gana to refresh wood industry to balance the shortage in foreign currency because of coca that wood production increases from 147000 cubic meter in 1984 to 413000 cubic meters 1987. This random destruction for Gana’s forests turns it to agricultural interests. In fact, these policies lead to real catastrophe representing in decreasing alimentary production and declining soil fertility.
The report mentions to “growing rift between State and society” that several governments in the third world suffer from the pressures of external creditors “especially the IMF and WB”, moreover, the governments in the third world submit to pressures imposed by unseen power of globalization in addition to the pressure directed by the loser social powers because of their failure to reform the economy. It is accompanied by violating the right of citizens to participate in the national development policies that weakens sustaining the development in many countries that consequently impacts negatively human rights.
The report reviews “categories harmed by implementation of the mentioned economic policies” revealing the negative effects of these policies on their living conditions and their basic needs. These categories are farmers, children, women and laborers.
The report ends to some recommendations considered as first step on the way of defending social and economic rights emphasizing that the current conditions impose more burdens on human rights activists in particular and on civil society activists in general, who have to press the decision-makers, who apply these unjust economic policies asking for alternative strategies that match with demands of the widest sector of the world inhabitants “laborers, farmers, employers, marginal and poor people.