Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights meets with civil society representatives from Bulgaria, Cameroon and Estonia

GENEVA (18 February 2019) - The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights this afternoon heard from civil society organizations on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Bulgaria, Cameroon and Estonia, whose reports the Committee will review this week.

Civil society organizations from Bulgaria highlighted the plight of Roma, namely their ghettoization, the quality of housing, forced evictions and security of tenure, as well as segregation in education and lack of access to healthcare.  Despite numerous promises made, starting in 1999 with the Framework Programme for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society, that the Government would take measures to legalize all Roma housing, this had not happened.  Speakers also drew attention to problems with the deinstitutionalization of care for persons with mental disabilities, and the provision of medical and social care assistance to persons suffering from dementia. 

In Cameroon, speakers pointed out traditional courts which continued to take discriminatory measures against women in the area of property rights, lack of legal provisions to address marital violence, the need to strengthen the political participation of women, limited access to education for girls, exposure of women and girls to the conflicts in the north, north-west and south-west of the country, low birth registration rate, and gender-based labour discrimination.  Speakers also discussed the 270-day Internet shutdown which had affected the English-speaking minority in the country in 2017 and 2018.

Speaking about Estonia, civil society organizations noted that the country was failing in its constitutional and international obligations to promote, protect and fulfil the right to health of women who used drugs.  Access to opioid substitution therapy and other proven harm reduction treatments was systematically frustrated by widespread discrimination and neglect towards women who used drugs.  The programmes failed to consider that such women must care for dependent children while balancing work, and they were reportedly told that they must take the impossible choice between seeking treatment and caring for their children. 

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and Foundation Compassion Alzheimer Bulgaria spoke about Bulgaria. 

Speaking on Cameroon were Internet Sans Frontières, also on behalf of Access Now and Association for Progressive Communications, and Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. 

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law spoke about the situation in Estonia. 

The Committee will next meet in public on Tuesday, 19 February, at 3 p.m., to consider the third periodic report of Estonia (E/C.12/EST/3).

Opening Remarks

RENATO ZERBINI RIBEIRO LEÃO, Committee Chairperson, welcomed representatives of civil society from Bulgaria, Cameroon and Estonia.  

Statements by Civil Society Organizations from Bulgaria

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee stated that the report of the Government of Bulgaria did not cover some important problems with the implementation of the Covenant at the national level.  One of the most serious problems had to do with the ghettoization of the Roma community and the related issues of the quality of housing, forced evictions and security of tenure.  Despite numerous promises made, starting in 1999 with the Framework Programme for Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society, as well as in subsequent documents, that the Government would take measures to legalize all Roma housing, this had not happened.  The issue had been addressed in a number of judgments and decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the European Committee on Social Rights.  In the past several years, the situation with the security of tenure and forced evictions of Roma from their homes had worsened.  The overwhelming majority (89 per cent) of the demolition orders targeted only homes of Roma. 

The second issue concerned education of Roma, with 60 per cent of Roma children attending school in de facto segregated schools offering substandard education.  The number of Roma children who did not attend school or kindergarten was very high.  The third problem related to the access of Roma to healthcare.  They were only entitled to emergency healthcare, which was free but only available in life-threatening situations.  According to the recent data, only 45 per cent of all Bulgarians of Roma origin aged 16 or older were covered by the national health insurance.  The reasons for exclusion were complex, including chronic unemployment, work in the grey economy, and seasonal migration.  And finally, the fourth issue concerned the deinstitutionalization of care for persons with mental disabilities.  Many persons with mental disabilities continued to live all their lives in social care homes, which the European Court of Human Rights had designated as places of deprivation of liberty. 

Foundation Compassion Alzheimer Bulgaria reminded that approximately 100,000 people in Bulgaria were currently living with dementia, out of which 50,000 with Alzheimer’s disease.  The country had demonstrated a genuine commitment for improving social services for those people.  However, there were problems in the implementation of the medical social care assistance and the reimbursement of costs.  In order to tackle the financial constraints and the challenges related to early and timely diagnosis, the organization recommended that the Government ensure funding and establishment of diagnosis centres, with contemporary techniques and methods, ensure annual training of neurologists, psychiatrists and general practitioners, ensure access to complex, long-term and sustainable care and services for people living with dementia, and that it secure adequate financial and social support for the protection of their human rights.   

Questions by the Committee Experts

Experts inquired about the similarities in the plight of Roma in European countries, wondering whether a regional approach to their problems would make sense.  As Bulgaria was a European Union Member State, what had been the results of the Union’s intervention regarding the plight of Roma?  What could the Committee do in that respect?

What contributed to the very low life expectancy of Roma in Bulgaria?  Was it due to some specificities in Bulgaria itself? 

What were the details of the de facto segregation of Roma in schools and of forced evictions of Roma?

Replies

Bulgarian Helsinki Committee agreed that some of the Roma issues in Bulgaria were common in other European countries.  The Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005 – 2015 of the European Union had tried to address those problems, but nothing had happened to improve the integration of Roma, and in fact, the situation had deteriorated.  In spite of numerous judgments and decisions by the European Court of Human Rights, none of the recommendations had been implemented.  Bulgarian Helsinki Committee recommended that the forced evictions of Roma not be carried out in cases when people would be rendered homeless.  Turning to the low life expectancy of Roma in Bulgaria, the organization attributed it to the general poverty of Roma and poor access to medical care.  Nowhere was the rate of Roma children attending segregated schools as high as in Bulgaria, due to the fact that Roma mostly lived in segregated neighbourhoods.  Even though segregation was de jure abolished, Roma children continued to attend their neighbourhood and de facto segregated schools.  Bulgarian Helsinki Committee underlined the demolition and collective expulsion of the entire Roma community in the village of Voyvodinovo near Plovdiv, in January 2019.  All the Roma inhabitants had been rendered homeless in the middle of winter. 

Statements by Civil Society Organizations from Cameroon

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom drew attention to the fact that traditional courts continued to take discriminatory measures against women in the area of property rights.  Despite progress under the revised Penal Code, there were still gaps concerning violence against women, including marital rape.  Violence against women needed to be followed up by education and awareness raising programmes.  Furthermore, measures needed to be taken to strengthen the political participation of women because only 11 out of 68 members of the Government were women.  As for the humanitarian situation in Cameroon, the organization reminded that more than 680,000 persons had been displaced due to the conflicts in the north, north-west and south-west of the country.  Women and children were particularly affected due to the closure of schools, kidnapping and murder.  Access to education was very limited due to the exposure of girls to the risk of rape, exploitation and early pregnancy.  Cameroon had to facilitate access to humanitarian aid to internally displaced persons, taking into account the special needs of women and girls.  The proliferation of weapons led to insecurity, conflicts and violence against women.  The creation of a national committee for the disarmament of Boko Haram and of armed groups in the north-west and south-west had to be accompanied by an inclusive national dialogue, with all relevant stakeholders, in order to ensure effective disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.  The Government also needed to implement legislative measures to fight against gender-based labour discrimination, raise awareness among parents to register their children, and to ensure free of charge public primary education. 

Internet Sans Frontières, also on behalf of Access Now and Association for Progressive Communications, reminded that while access to the Internet was not in itself a human right, it could act as a significant enabler of economic, social and cultural rights.  The relationship between meaningful access to the Internet and economic, social and cultural rights had been particularly highlighted during the 270-day long suspension of Internet access by the Cameroonian Government in 2017 and 2018.  The intentional disruption of Internet access to an entire region of the country constituted a deliberate and retrograde measure by the Government, which violated its obligations under the Covenant.  The 270-day Internet shutdown should be considered as a form of discrimination against the English-speaking minority as English-speaking regions had been unable to access information, denied freedom of expression, unable to apply for jobs, barred from working remotely, forced to lose economic opportunities and business revenues, prohibited from continuing their education online, and inhibited from accessing health and medical services.  Finally, by disrupting and shutting down the Internet exclusively in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon, the Government had violated the rights of linguistic minorities.

Questions by the Committee Experts

Experts inquired about discriminatory treatment of the English-speaking minority and other minority linguistic communities in Cameroon.  What was the situation with respect to access to secondary and tertiary education for girls? 

Turning to the labour-market discrimination against women and the gender wage gap, Experts inquired about ways for the Government to improve the income of women working in the informal sector.

As for the low rate of birth registration in the country, was the registration fee too high for families to afford?  Were there any other administrative barriers to birth registration? 

What was the general situation of women’s inequality?  Was there any awareness about the Covenant provisions in that respect, especially of the principle of equal pay for equal work, and of equal employment for women?         

With regard to the tensions between the Anglophone and Francophone communities, did civil society in Cameroon have any specific recommendations?  Should the Committee have any concerns in that regard? 

Speaking of domestic violence and child marriage, Experts asked what Cameroonian civil society would suggest to the Committee to do with respect to polygamy? 

What was the Government’s spending on economic, social and cultural rights?  What was civil society’s assessment of the Cameroonian Government’s implementation of national plans on women, peace and security?  

Had there been any follow-up on the recent resolution of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights on the human rights situation in Cameroon?

Was there general discrimination with respect to access to the Internet?  Was there an equivalent to the Freedom of Information Act in Cameroon?  What was the Government’s plan to expand Internet access throughout the whole country? 

Replies

Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom explained that it had not considered other linguistic communities in its report because the problem of the English-speaking community, and disparities between French and English speakers, was the most crucial problem in the country at the moment.  As for the access to secondary and tertiary education for girls, social and cultural barriers in some communities were problematic as people were not ready to enrol their daughters.  It was really cultural barriers that blocked girls’ access to education at all levels.  With respect to general discrimination against women, the Government could do better to train and inform women about their rights.  The low birth registration rate was due to corruption and the fact that very often clerks asked parents to pay for birth registration.  In addition, parents were often not aware of how important it was to register their children.  A national census needed to be carried out in order to assess how many people in the country were without birth registration.  Cameroon had a national action plan on women, peace and security, but it had not allowed for its evaluation.  Given the security context due to the menace of Boko Haram, women should be increasingly involved in peace and security initiatives.  That area was one of the Government’s failures.  As for violence in families, it was a widespread social phenomenon in Cameroon and the Penal Code did not explicitly mention marital violence.  It talked only about injuries in very generic ways.  The practice of early marriage was also widespread and there was insufficient awareness raising to counter it.  Monogamous marriage was almost an exception in the country, and unless specified explicitly in marriage documents, it was considered that a woman accepted polygamy.  With respect to the budgetary allocations of the Government for economic, social and cultural rights, the decentralization plan under the Constitution had not been effectively implemented, leading to the current crisis between the English- and French-speaking communities.  Tribalism was a key reason for inter-communal violence, often exploited by the people in power.      

Internet Sans Frontières, also on behalf of Access Now and Association for Progressive Communications, explained that beyond recent events there was inequality in access to the Internet that was largely gender-based.  Women were less likely to access the Internet than men due to their lower income.  Government initiatives that aimed to end the gender gap in digital access had not been adapted to technological advances.  However, some progress had been made due to collaboration with the private sector.  Unfortunately, there was no equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act in Cameroon.  But there was an effort to include Cameroon in the Open Government Partnership.  The problem with the Government’s ambitious plan to make the Internet available to all the population was that it lacked actionable targets.  There was little transparency on how much money would be spent on Internet infrastructure development.  The high cost of the Internet was closely linked with infrastructure development.          

Statements by Civil Society Organizations from Estonia 

Eurasian Harm Reduction Association and Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network stressed that there were still no shelters for women who used drugs and no rehabilitation services for women with children, whereas medical personnel, child protection services and the police continued to misuse their power.  In October 2018, the Estonian Social Security Department requested the National Institute for Health Development to conduct a training session for its employees on the topic of health of women who used drugs.  However, no women who used drugs or representatives of people who used drugs had been invited to attend that training.  Although drug use and possession of small amounts of illicit drugs for personal use were misdemeanours, people who were convicted had to cover the costs of the drug laboratory’s forensic examination and court proceedings in addition to paying a fine. Those who did not pay fines were later arrested.  As a result, people usually ended up in debt to the Government. The debt decreased the chances of women who used drugs for social reintegration and limited their ability to regain the custody of their children.  Drug laws and drug enforcement practices in Estonia, combined with the stigma related to drugs and HIV, were the main drivers of systematic and serious violations of health, parental, child protection and labour rights of women who used drugs. The organization asked the Committee to ask Estonia to reconsider its punitive approach to drug use. 

Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law said that Estonia was failing in its constitutional and international obligations to promote, protect and fulfil the right to health of women who used drugs.  Access to opioid substitution therapy and other proven harm reduction treatments was systematically frustrated by widespread discrimination and neglect toward women who used drugs.  The programmes failed to consider that such women must care for dependent children while balancing work, and they were reportedly told that they must take the impossible choice between seeking treatment and caring for their children.  The pervasive stigma towards drug dependency manifested itself in various forms of mistreatment and abuse that discouraged women from daring to seek treatment options in the first place.  Consequently, the penetration rate of opioid substitution therapy was no more than 20 per cent.  Women who used drugs and were also HIV positive faced an added layer of discrimination, ostracization and mistreatment.  Their health status as HIV positive alone precluded them from being accepted by many clinics and mental health clinics.  Women who used drugs were routinely seen as criminals and moral failures.  They were often stopped on the street for being “known drug addicts” and forced to take drug tests on the spot, or else be detained at the police station and forced to undergo painful, degrading and medically unnecessary tests by urinary catheter.  Those who tested positive had to pay a punitive fine that was often unaffordable, and they risked having their children taken away.  Estonia should put an end to forced drug testing and de-penalize drug possession for personal use.

Questions by the Committee Experts

Why were women’s drug problems in Estonia so peculiar?  How was it different from men’s drug problems?  Why did they start using drugs in the first place?  What alternative approaches could be applied to them? 

What measures had the Government taken to deal with women’s drug problems?  What was the situation with respect to gender equality and domestic violence in Estonia?

It seemed that there was no family preservation policy in Estonia given that child protection officers demanded that women who used drugs relinquish their custody rights, an Expert observed.  Did medical professionals disclose medically confidential information about drug use and HIV status to child protection officers?

Replies

Human Rights Clinic at the University of Miami School of Law explained that Estonia had some good laws and policies, but their implementation was problematic.  Drug dependency alone was not a reason to take away children from their mothers.  Women suffered more from the problem of drug dependency than men.  Those who used drugs were very marginalized and poor.  Often there was an intersection between domestic violence and drug use.  Even though Estonia prided itself for gender equality, recently the Council of Europe had found that it still lagged behind in terms of attitudes towards women.  Accordingly, those women who used drugs faced more stigma than men who used drugs.  The problem was that Estonia was a small society and women who were known for using drugs were frequently stopped on a suspicion that they used drugs and were made to take drug tests.  As for disclosure of medically confidential information, some progress had been made with respect to not disclosing HIV status.  But there had been a lot of exchange of information between medical professionals and child protection officers on drug use.  What the law said was one thing and what happened in practice was another.   

_____________

For use of the information media; not an official record