COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMED OF DECISION OF HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS TO ACCEPT EXTENSION OF HER MANDATE BY ONE YEAR

Commission on Human Rights
57th session
3 April 2001
Morning





Reports on Education, Toxic Waste Food,
Foreign Debt and Adequate Housing
Presented to Commission as it Continues
Debate on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights



The Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, Leandro Despouy, this morning informed the Commission of the decision made by Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to accept the extension of her mandate by one year. Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts also presented the Commission with findings on the right to education, the illicit moving and dumping of toxic wastes, the right to food, the effects of structural adjustment and foreign debt burdens, and the right to adequate housing.

Friis Arne Peterson, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, also spoke, saying that promotion and protection of human rights was not a question of condemning anyone, but that as a matter of credibility -- and concern for the victims -- the Commission must speak out against gross violations following a century which had been marked by the Holocaust, the genocide in Rwanda, and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.

Katarina Tomasevski, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, said among other things that the elimination of financial obstacles impeding the recognition and realization of the right to education required action at the global and domestic levels.

Fatma-Zohra Ouhachi-Vesely, Special Rapporteur on the illicit movement and dumping of toxic waste, remarked that despite the existence of penal provisions in a number of States, the authors of such crimes generally escaped punishment and the question of impunity needed special attention, particularly because such violations often were a cross-border problem involving transnational corporations.


Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said 826 million people were chronically undernourished, with most suffering from what the Food and Agriculture Organization called "extreme hunger", meaning that their daily intake of calories was well below the minimum required for survival. Each year 36 million people died, directly or indirectly, as a result of nutritional deficiencies, he said.

Fantu Cheru, Independent Expert on the effects of structural adjustment and foreign debt, said among other things that even under recent international debt-reduction programmes, debt payments would continue to absorb a disproportionately large share of Government revenues, amounting to more than 15 per cent in six countries and over 40 per cent in Zambia, Cameroon and Malawi.

Miloon Kothari, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, said that while there had been much progress on normative aspects of the right to adequate housing, the actual realization and implementation of the right remained far from reality for the majority of the poor and vulnerable around the world.

The Commission also carried on with its general debate under the agenda item on economic, social and cultural rights, hearing statements from Representatives of Zambia, the Republic of Korea, Cuba, Mexico, Japan, Algeria, Madagascar, Viet Nam, and Costa Rica.

The Commission will reconvene at 3 p.m. to continue its discussion of economic, social and cultural rights.


Economic, social and cultural rights

Under this agenda item, the Commission has before it a series of documents.

There is a letter (E/CN.4/2001/10) from the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland summarizing responses to the reports of the Special Rapporteurs on the right to education and freedom of opinion and expression on visits to the United Kingdom; a note verbale (E/CN.4/2001/123) from the Permanent Mission of Iraq on why the country rejected implementation of Security Council resolution 1284 related to the economic embargo against Iraq; and a letter (E/CN.4/2001/8) from the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh giving comments of Bangladesh on a statement by the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre contained in an NGO document (E/CN.4/2000/NGO/14) of the 56th session of the Commission.

There is a report (E/CN.4/2001/49) of the Secretary-General pursuant to Commission resolution 2000/9 which reviews the status of a proposal for a draft optional protocol to the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; support for the work of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; general comments and days of general discussion on such rights; the right to education; and the right to adequate housing.

There is a report (E/CN.4/2001/50) of the Secretary-General on human rights and unilateral coercive measures which gives a reply to a request for information from Cuba which contends, among other things, that "the implementation of unilateral coercive measures that are not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations is one of the worst and most serious violations of human rights that can be committed against the populations of the countries affected" and that "Cuba has been the victim of a criminal and genocidal blockade imposed by the United States for 40 years".

There is a report (E/CN.4/2001/51) of the Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, Miloon Kothari, which has among its preliminary conclusions and recommendations that housing and living conditions across the world
are deteriorating; that concrete policy recommendations to respond to the problem should be aimed at alleviating an enormous shortfall in the global realization of the right to adequate housing; that further studies are needed based on the development of a research agenda on the effects of globalization processes on housing; that the Commission should perhaps convene an expert seminar to address the issue; and that the Special Rapporteur might take on the task of seeking, receiving, and responding to information on all aspects of the realization of the right to adequate housing, in particular urgent calls or action in cases of serious violations of the right, including forced evictions or discriminatory policies and measures that impact upon the realization of the right.

There is a report (E/CN.4/2001/52) of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Katarina Tomasevski, which states among things in its conclusions and recommendations that education is increasingly defined as the key to development, and the right to education as the key to the enjoyment of other human rights; and that, conversely, denials of the right to education place work, social security, or political representation beyond reach; that realization of the right to education requires close cooperation between, at the least, educators and educationalists, economists and human-rights lawyers so as to make the mainstreaming of human-rights education strategies at all levels effectively reflect all the necessary components; that international and domestic human-rights law protecting the right to education and guaranteeing human rights in education should be used as a "corrective" for all education strategies; that international actors, including the World Bank, should review their approach to education, using human rights as a yardstick; that the World Bank should carry out an internal review of all Bank lending operations in order to identify departures from international legal requirements and undertake corrective action; and that as a first step, an in-house review be carried out to identify where school fees in primary education are being charged, followed by an explicit requirement that these be abolished.

There is a report (E/CN.4/2001/53) of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, which in its conclusions and recommendations states that it is clear that free trade will never feed the world; because of the rapidly spreading globalization of markets and the emergence of powerful transnational oligarchies, the normative power of States has been degenerating at an increasing pace; that civil society, and the social movements that took place in civil society, were the best hope for filling in the moral vacuum left by the waning influence of States; that the international community should make it a matter of priority that States be able to provide the poorest families with local seed and land for family vegetable gardens, that daily school meals be extended to all needy children and meal vouchers be introduced in compulsory schools, and that basic foods be State-subsidized and food tickets be issued to the most deprived; that an expert seminar be convened to lay the scientific and pedagogic foundation for a handbook on the right to food; and that the Commission make it clear that the term "food" also covers the nutritional aspects of drinking water.


There is a report by Special Rapporteur Fatma-Zohra Ouhachi-Vesely on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights (E7CN.4/2001/55) which concludes, among others things, that there has been an increase in exports of dangerous products and wastes from industrialized countries to the Third World via "recycling programmes” which enable producers to circumvent the ban imposed by the 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. The report indicates that the transfer of polluting industries, industrial activities and technologies that generate dangerous waste is another problem. Prohibited exports are disposed of as recycling material or under cover of bogus development projects. The report notes that the transfer of "dirty" industrial operations from OECD Member States to non-Member States has apparently increased; that products which are either banned or strictly regulated in industrialized countries continue to be produced and exported to developing countries; that the most alarming cases involve the intensive and uncontrolled use of chemicals, toxic agricultural products and persistent organic pollutants; that traffickers in wastes resort to fraudulent practices and even corruption; and that a combination of legal, economic and political factors is contributing to the emergence, development and intractability of the problem.

There is an addendum (E/CN.4/2001/55.Add 1) to the report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the adverse effects of the illicit movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products and wastes on the enjoyment of human rights which contains a summary of general observations and information received from Governments and other sources, new cases submitted to the attention of the Special Rapporteur, and a summary of cases contained in the previous reports.

There is a report by Fantu Cheru, Independent Expert on the effects of structural adjustment policies and foreign debt on the full enjoyment of all human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights (E/CN.4/2001/56) which indicates, among other things, that the most critical problem relating to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is its financing. The lack of sufficient resources to fund the initiative has become a growing concern to the World Bank and the IMF, the two institutions that preside over the HIPC process. Further, the report underlines that the HIPC initiative did not address debts that were owed by HIPC to non-Paris Club creditors. Thus, the actual debt situation of the HIPC initiative as it stands is inadequate. The report recommends, inter alia, that creditor Governments and institutions revisit the whole issue. Recommendations address the issue of how to expedite the process of providing immediate relief to eligible HIPC countries. The main recommendations are that HIPC debt relief be unlinked from Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, that the only condition imposed on countries receiving debt relief be that they establish an independent entity to channel freed resources towards social development, that the World Bank and IMF not have an exclusive role as overseers of poverty reduction programmes but that other UN agencies be included as well, that new rounds of talks aimed at finding a solution to the debt burden of many poor countries be organized and that a serious dialogue be undertaken on how to integrate macroeconomic policy issues with broader social development goals.

There is a report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (E/CN.4/2001/62) on the draft optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which contains comments of States, international organizations and non-governmental organizations. At its fifty-second session, in resolution 1996/16, the Commission took note of the measures taken by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights towards the elaboration of a draft optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to establish the right of individuals or groups to submit communications concerning non-compliance with the Covenant. An addendum (E/CN.4/2001/62/Add.1) contains the comments received from States.

Also before the Commission is a report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (E/CN.4/2001/62/Add.2) on a workshop on the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights, with particular reference to the draft optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The report says that the Office of the High Commissioner organized a workshop in Geneva on 5 and 6 February 2001. Experts and Representatives of Governments participated. The report contains views expressed by a number of experts.


Statements

KATARINA TOMASEVSKI, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, said enrollment in primary education had decreased by 10 per cent in Africa in the 1980s, and a similar retrogression had taken place in Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the 1990s. The international community had been faced with emergencies in education more than once. Its responses had recently included one important victory for human rights, namely the explicit affirmation of the right to free primary education in an increasing number of global education policies. The elimination of financial obstacles impeding the recognition and realization of the right to education required action at the global and domestic levels.

The right to education was an effective means for combatting child labour and child marriage, the Special Rapporteur said. The right to education also operated as a multiplier -- when it was effectively guaranteed, it enhanced all other human rights, while its denial jeopardized all other rights. The lack of access to education routinely precluded self-sustaining livelihood and this was transmitted from one generation to another. One particularly worrisome feature of inequalities in education was their racial dimension. The economic dimensions of racial discrimination were rarely studied and the coming World Conference against Racism represented an excellent opportunity to remedy this shortcoming. Current economic, fiscal and commercial policies at the global level carried a risk of marginalizing the right to education.

FATMA-ZOHRA OUHACHI-VESELY, Special Rapporteur on the illicit movement and dumping of toxic wastes, recalled that a conference had been organized from 8 to 12 January 2001 in Rabat, Morocco, to examine the environmental situation in Africa and the stock of toxic materials in order to design a strategy to eliminate them. The conference had adopted a programme of action for Africa in regard to the manner in which pesticides, including DDT, were stocked and could be eliminated. International cooperation assistance in the elimination of exiting stockpiles had also been examined.

The Special Rapporteur said her report underlined serious problems related to the illicit movement and dumping of toxic waste. Among the positive points were the development of international juridical provisions and national legislation which would contribute to reducing the movement and transfer of toxic materials. In addition, public awareness had increased on the dangerous effects of toxic materials on human beings and the environment. Civil society also was playing a leading role in awareness-raising. In rare cases, victims of toxic waste had been lodging complaints against those responsible to obtain compensation.

Among negative developments were that the international instruments adopted had not been reinforced and had certain lacunae concerning the fight against illicit toxic waste, its illegal manipulation, and corruption; also, the instruments had weaknesses from the perspective of the human rights of the victims. Despite the existence of penal provisions in a number of States, the authors of such crimes escaped punishment. The question of impunity needed special attention, since often such violations were a cross-border problem involving transnational corporations.

FRIIS ARNE PETERSEN, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, said promotion and protection of human rights was not a question of condemning anyone. It was a matter of credibility -- and concern for the victims -- which demanded that the Commission speak out against gross violations of human rights. Mankind was leaving behind it a century which had been marked by some of history's most appalling crimes: the Holocaust during the Second World War, and more recently the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. The World Conference against Racism this year would provide a timely opportunity for leading the way into the twenty-first century in such a manner that the horrible experiences of the past -- slavery, the Holocaust and apartheid -- would not be repeated.

The eradication of torture was another priority. The ban on torture had been transformed into legally binding obligations in the United Nations Convention against Torture. Yet this Convention had fewer State parties than any other core human rights convention adopted by the United Nations. Torture always took place clandestinely, and it continued to occur in spite of public denial. That was why it was so hard to combat. The international community needed to intensify its commitment to eradicating torture. That was why Denmark was prepared again this year to present before the Commission a draft omnibus resolution against torture. Capital punishment was a related issue. It was cruel and unnecessary. Mistakes happened in all judicial systems. When applying capital punishment, such mistakes were literally fatal. The death penalty was a harsh punishment, but it had little effect on criminal behaviour.

Denmark was pleased that the Commission last year had prepared the ground for the landmark decision to establish a permanent forum on indigenous issues. The establishment of a permanent forum with a very wide-ranging mandate was a good illustration that human rights did not operate in a vacuum.

JEAN ZIEGLER, Special Rapporteur on the right to food, said 826 million people were chronically undernourished; most suffered from what the Food and Agriculture Organization called "extreme hunger" -- their daily intake of calories was well below the minimum required for survival; and each year 36 million people died, directly or indirectly, as a result of nutritional deficiencies. Undernourishment and hunger almost invariably had severe impacts on human beings, such as the underdevelopment of brain cells in babies and blindness caused by Vitamin A deficiency. Chronic hunger and serious malnutrition could also be a hereditary curse: every year, tens of millions of seriously undernourished mothers gave birth to tens of millions of seriously affected babies; those babies were referred to as “born crucified”.

Mr. Ziegler recommended according particular attention to the legal and institutional development of the right to food. It would be particularly desirable, he said, for the Commission to reaffirm the legal value of General Comment no. 12 as an authentic interpretation of article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It also was important to clarify that the term “food” covered not only solid food but also the nutritional aspects of drinking water. The right to food was of such crucial theoretical and practical importance for the economic, social and cultural development of peoples and individuals that it should be made the subject of an annual debate at the Commission and the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur said.

FANTU CHERU, Independent Expert on the effects of structural adjustment and foreign debt, said the pledge made by G-7 Governments at the Cologne Summit to grant deeper debt relief had fallen short of its goals. The incremental step-by-step approach adopted had delivered some relief to only 20 countries by December 2000. Moreover, only a token relaxation of the stringent qualification criteria had been made. The incremental approach had cost lives by denying Governments the resources needed to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, reduce poverty and fight illiteracy.

A recent report by the NGO Oxfam had concluded that the annual budget savings for most countries receiving Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief would be modest. Some countries -- including Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia -- would emerge from the HIPC process in the perverse position of paying more in debt servicing. Debt payments would continue to absorb a disproportionately large share of Government revenues, amounting to more than 15 per cent in six countries and over 40 per cent in Zambia, Cameroon and Malawi.

Inadequate funding for debt relief was just one of the problems associated with the enhanced HIPC initiative, the Independent Expert said. Unrealistic International Monetary Fund (IMF) conditions that eligible countries had to comply with in order to receive debt relief had been the second most pernicious problem. Besides the funding crisis, the enhanced HIPC initiative was inadequate since it did not address debts that were owed by HIPC countries to non-Paris Club creditors and which had not been rescheduled or serviced at all for a long period of time.

While both the World Bank and the IMF increasingly recognized the need for linking macroeconomic policies with broad social development goals, there was still a tendency to design macroeconomic policies with a focus on market-based criteria and financial concerns, the Independent Expert said. This tendency always led to a situation where social and human development and equity concerns took a back seat to financial considerations.

MILOON KOTHARI, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, said the right to adequate housing, as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, had been recognized as a cornerstone in human rights since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Based on that recognition, important work had been carried out by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which had adopted two general comments -- on the right to adequate housing and on forced eviction. There was also important work being carried out by the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).

While there had been much progress on normative aspects of the right to adequate housing, the actual realization and implementation of the right remained far from reality for the majority of the poor and vulnerable throughout the world, Mr. Kothari said. At present, one-fifth of the world's population lived in absolute poverty, on less than $ 1 a day; women comprised 70 per cent of those living in absolute poverty, and most of the poor were forced to live without access to such basic amenities as food, clothing and shelter. There were 600 million urban dwellers and 1 billion living in rural areas in the South who lived in overcrowded or poor-quality housing with inadequate provision of water, sanitation and garbage collection.

Discrimination and segregation were becoming important issues in the area of housing rights, the Special Rapporteur said. For the realization of rights related to adequate housing, it was important that women be accorded substantive rather than illusory rights.

BONAVENTURE BOWA (Zambia) said debt relief should go beyond the HIPC initiative if the poor countries of the South, especially the least developed, were to realize their economic, social and cultural rights. In this connection, Zambia agreed fully with the observation contained in the report of the Independent Expert that the annual budget savings for most countries receiving HIPC debt relief would be modest. Debt payments would continue to absorb a disproportionately large share of Zambian Government revenue, amounting to over 40 per cent. This alone represented more than the national budgets for health and education combined.

As a result of the deterioration of health care and basic education, Zambia had in the past few years seen an increase in child mortality and children dropping out of school. Three-quarters of the children who dropped out of primary school did so because of cost factors. Thus the debt burden continued to erode resources for social investment. Zambia was of the view that in order for her and other least-developed countries to achieve sustainable development there was a need for total cancellation of external debt.

GIL-SOU SHIN (Republic of Korea) said the global economy, based on free trade and market mechanisms, had helped to reduce poverty around the world in past decades and had improved living standards in many countries. Rapid development had been seen in emerging countries which had sought active integration in the international economy, and these countries had succeeded in lifting large segments of their populations out of poverty. The global economy should continue to provide an environment conducive for countries to pursue economic growth, which was essential in the fight against poverty. However, due attention should be paid to the fact that although globalization had created opportunities, it had also introduced new risks. On the one hand, globalization propelled industrialization, helping economic development, while on the other hand it was seen as widening inequalities between and within countries.

The Korean delegation was happy to note that the need to tackle poverty through a rights-based approach, which was integral to the process of linking development to the alleviation of poverty, was being recognized. Human rights were crucial for poverty eradication because they set the standards for the conduct of all actors and encouraged accountability. In addition, a large number of human-rights problems could not be solved unless the right to education was addressed as the key to the enjoyment of other human rights.

JORGE FERRER RODRIGUEZ (Cuba) said that despite the High Commissioner's efforts to make the international community aware of the equal importance of the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, the only thing that had progressed was hunger, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, lack of access to education, children dying of hunger and inexpensively curable diseases, and inequalities inside and among nations. In contrast, a few countries and transnationals from the developed North accumulated increasing wealth equivalent to the total GDPs of tens of underdeveloped countries; and a few individuals concentrated personal profits which were tens and hundreds of thousands times higher than the average amounts of inhabitants of the countries of the South.

On the other hand, far from progressing, official assistance for development and direct investment in underdeveloped countries were decreasing. Despite these realities, the Commission was far from giving equitable treatment to economic, social and cultural rights.

ALEJANDRO NEGRIN MUNOZ (Mexico) said the country was living in an historic moment; on 29 March, the Zaptista National Liberation Army, which had been carrying out an armed struggle for the last 7 years, had announced its decision before the country's Congress to renew dialogue with the Government of Mexico and to find a durable, peaceful and just solution to the conflict. The Government of Mexico was also to comply with the demands of the Zapatistas, which included the withdrawal of the army from the region and the dismantling of military installations in Chiapas; liberation of all prisoners; and protection of the cultural rights of indigenous peoples, among other things. The Government was also to implement a law in that regard. The construction of peace in Chiapas corresponded to the election of an opposition President after 70 years. Achieving lasting peace would require the full participation of society.

In Mexico, an all-inclusive democratic process was taking place based on the respect of the human rights of all persons. The democratic process would affirm the protection of the cultural rights of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, would eliminate any form of discrimination, and would respect the dignity and integrity of all. The new Government of Mexico considered that it was imperative to respect and protect the economic, social and cultural rights of all Mexicans. The Government of President Vincente Fox had also given priority to the elimination of poverty, which affected 40 per cent of the population. And it had emphasized the importance of education.

MASARU WATANABE (Japan) said primary responsibility for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights rested with the Government of each State. Japan understood that some countries might face difficulties in promoting national policies for democratic development, even if they had the political will to do so, due to the lack of legal, political, and administrative systems. International cooperation played an important role here in assisting the efforts of the Governments of those countries. For its part, the Japanese Government had implemented an extensive programme of official development assistance targeting those countries with the political will for promoting human rights and democracy. Japan, as the top ODA donor for nearly a decade, had placed emphasis on poverty reduction in developing countries.

Development was a natural goal for nations. However, it should not be forgotten that development and human rights must be promoted in tandem. Development should contribute to promoting human rights, and human rights should never be suppressed in the name of economic development. Japan understood and shared the concern raised by other Commission members over the impact that environmental issues, foreign debt and structural adjustment policies could have on human rights, but it had doubts about whether the Commission was a suitable forum in which to address these issues.

HOCINE SAHRAOUI (Algeria) said the different reports submitted under agenda item 10 on economic, social and cultural rights provided ample and useful information on the different activities carried out by the various organizations of the United Nations system. However, they lacked the necessary analysis of the difficulties and the obstacles faced in the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The report of the UN Secretary-General, for example, would have more pertinent if it had contained an analytical aspect and a series of recommendations. It was disappointing to note that the conclusion of the report did not exceed six lines and limited itself to the announcement of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the creation of the Covenant in December.

Algeria noted the modest resources allocated by the UN System for the protection and promotion of the economic, social and cultural rights. It was significant to stress that in the process of the restructuring of the UN in the economic and social sectors in order to ensure effectiveness, the capacities of UN institutions had been reduced and the institutions had been marginalized.

MAXIME ZAFERA (Madagascar) said his country would continually emphasize the point that human rights were universal, indivisible and interdependent, and would deplore the fact that in some countries all rights still did not enjoy equal, equitable and balanced treatment. Indeed, several countries continued to consider the realization of civil and political rights as a prior condition for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. Madagascar was of the view that economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights to adequate food, to education, to housing, to health care, etc, were indivisible from civil and political rights and had to enjoy equal treatment as affirmed in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.

Commitments undertaken at the international level testified to the consensus regarding the need to place the human being at the centre of sustainable development and reaffirmed the international community's determination to eliminate poverty. However, much remained to be done if poverty was to be eliminated by 2015. It was needless to recall that more than 1 billion people lived in abject poverty, more than 150 million children under the age of five were malnourished, and the number of those who could not read was estimated at 1 billion. Madagascar believed that the majority of poor countries had the political will to fulfil their international commitments under different conventions but the scale of poverty was such that the difficulties in implementing these instruments fully could not be ignored.

DUONG CHI DUNG (Viet Nam) said his delegation believed that a good strategy for realization of the economic, social and cultural rights involved concurrently promoting civil and political rights. In the same way, a world where economic, social and cultural rights were neglected was not one in which civil and political rights could thrive. It was necessary to note that economic, social and cultural rights had yet to be accorded by the international community the priority they deserved; and in such circumstances, poverty and backwardness would continue to intensify, thereby depriving a growing number of peoples of their economic, social and cultural rights and as a consequence, threatening the realization of their civil and political rights.

Economic, social and cultural rights had been enshrined in the Constitution of Viet Nam since the very first days of its independence. Over past decades, together with the gradual development of the country, the people's economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights had been further enhanced both in legal terms and in their content and implementation. Viet Nam had recorded significant achievements across a broad range of development measures, both economic and social.

NORA RUIZ DE ANGULO (Costa Rica) said human rights were indivisible, interdependent and universal. The international community should not remain inactive in the face of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, inadequate housing and the despair of millions of people across the world. The realization of all human rights must be the priority of all humanity. The human being should be placed at the centre of development processes. The right to life included the right to live in dignity with the minimum necessary for enjoying a fulfilling life. Yet economic growth considerations often overlooked the fact that the economy should be at the service of the people and not vice versa.

Economic growth was a means for attaining human development. Debate on political, economic and development strategies had set economic growth as the prime objective, whereas it constituted only an instrument for guaranteeing the enjoyment of human rights. Human development should guarantee, among others, health care, equitable and just working conditions, welfare, adequate food and housing, access to education, and the ability to take advantage of scientific progress and artistic and literary production.



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