“Do Not Throw Garbage or Rocks in the Lake”, Lagunas de Portobello National Park in Chiapas, Mexico. Environmental rights are covered by the OP-ICESCR. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Jul 17 2013 (IPS)

Civil society organisations are pressing the Mexican government to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in force since May 2013.

The instrument, approved by the U.N. General Assembly in December 2008, is regarded as a key tool for fulfilling “third-generation” rights, such as access to healthcare, employment, water and a healthy environment.

“We have been calling for the protocol to be signed since it was negotiated,” Areli Sandoval, coordinator of DECA Equipo Pueblo (Social Watch Mexico), told IPS. “We are concerned to see the work of three years wasted; it is not a good sign. The government has not given a date for signing. They have behaved as if it is not important,” the activist said.

Starting in 2009, a group of civil society organisations worked with the government of conservative president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012) on signature of the convention, carrying out a number of consultations with the aim of clarifying the commitments that it would entail.

The information was ready in 2012. But according to Sandoval, Enrique Peña Nieto, elected president in July that year, urged the government not to take on any more international responsibilities until he took office on Dec. 1.

But more than seven months have gone by without any new developments, and activists are worried.

The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (OP-ICESCR) has been signed by 42 states and ratified by 10 of them, including Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Uruguay, in Latin America.

The OP-ICESCR went into force in May after it was ratified by Uruguay in February, as a minimum of 10 ratifications were needed.

A Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) monitors implementation of the ICESCR. States party to the Covenant must report periodically to the committee.

The optional protocol created a mechanism for individuals or groups to lodge complaints with the CESCR over violations of economic, social and cultural rights. It also established an inquiry mechanism, for the CESCR to investigate, report on and make recommendations on violations of the ICESCR by states party.

“The idea is to strengthen the justiciability (capability of being decided in a court) of these rights that have been long denied and neglected,” Agnieszka Raczynska, executive secretary of the Red Todos los Derechos para Todas y Todos (All Rights for All Network), which groups 73 Mexican human rights groups, told IPS.

In March, 33 civil society organisations presented a joint report ahead of the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review of Mexico’s human rights record by the U.N. Human Rights Council. In it they give an account of economic, social, cultural and environmental rights in this country.

Structural and legislative deficiencies within the Mexican state mean that when economic, social, cultural and environmental rights violations occur, access to justice and reparations are limited, the report says.

These violations also affect the right to prior, free and informed consent of the people and communities involved in the implementation of mega-projects that generate forced displacement, deeper poverty and environmental damage and deny people’s cultural rights, it adds.

According to the latest figures from the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL), from 2010, 52 million of Mexico’s 118 million people were living below the poverty line.

The NGOs forming part of the Mexican Campaign for the Ratification of the OP-ICESCR see it as vital in the fight against poverty, as it creates accountability with regard to the country’s social policies.

“This protocol goes against economic interests and multinational corporations. If Mexico has accepted jurisdiction of other human rights mechanisms, there is no logical reason why it should not accept this one,” said Sandoval.

Mexico’s combined fifth and sixth periodic report on compliance with the ICESCR was due in 2012, and has not yet been presented.

The CESCR will hold its 51st session Nov. 4-29, 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland, but the case of Mexico is not on the agenda.

“There is a lack of guarantees for individual rights. Efforts are needed to reduce poverty and fulfil the rights to employment, healthcare and education,” said Raczynska.

The NGOs have collected over 19,000 signatures on a petition which they have handed over to the Mexican government, calling for ratification of the protocol. But activists say ratification is unlikely to occur this year.

The Peña Nieto administration is preparing a National Human Rights Programme for 2012-2018, which must be in line with directives on human rights included in the 2011 constitutional reform.

Although the constitution and several laws recognise the right to a protected environment, environmental policy is often not effective or sustainable because of technical flaws, or because it is not in harmony with other sectors and social policies, and due to the total impunity surrounding environmental offences, which also affect several human rights, says the petition delivered by the NGOs.

Given the doubts as to whether the Mexican state is going to present its official report on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights, civil society organisations are deciding whether to present a shadow report.

A community radio station in Thailand is helping migrant workers access crucial information about their rights. Credit: Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau/IPS

By Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, May 2 2013 (IPS)

At the age of 23, Gao travelled to Thailand to escape intense fighting in his native Shan State in the east of Myanmar (Burma) and possible recruitment into the Shah army.

“When I arrived in Bangkok, I started working in a garment factory. We didn’t have proper food. I was surviving on a handful of rice and a half packet of ramen noodles,” Gao told IPS.

The young boy soon fell very ill but could not afford to see a doctor. It was not until his co-workers pooled all their resources together and put him on a bus to the northern city of Chiang Mai that he managed to get a free consultation through a Shan temple.

Gao was one of the lucky ones. Isolated by language and ethnic barriers, most migrants in Thailand lead secluded lives, unable to access resources or information that would help them secure their basic rights – such as healthcare, minimum wage, or proper food – in a foreign land.

To fill the gap, a local organisation known as the Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) has created community radio stations in Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, a town on the Thai-Burma border, which have opened the doors of communication for a silenced community.

“Most of the migrant workers in Thailand, especially from Myanmar, come from various ethnicities – including the Kayin, Kayah, Shan, Mon, Rawang, Bama and Tavoyan – and speak different languages, so (our work) is really about breaking the isolation that many face when they come to Thailand to work,” MAP Director Jackie Pollock told IPS.

The broadcasts go out in four different languages – Shan, Burmese, Thai and Northern Thai. Listeners phone in requests for their favourite songs, find out about MAP’s work or how to take advantage of current migration laws and policies.

Most of the listeners are migrant workers from Myranmar who often take up what are locally referred to as ‘3D’ jobs (dirty, dangerous and demanding), and end up working on construction sites, as domestic workers, in the agricultural and fishing industry and in garment and textile factories around the country.

Mae Sot, where one radio station is based, houses an entire industrial zone along the Thai-Burma border, where garment, textile and furniture factories swallow up scores of migrants the minute they cross the border in search of work.

Women comprise the bulk of the workers in this town and are subjected to extremely poor working conditions for far less than the minimum wage, which is currently ten dollars a day.

The radio station has penetrated this community, offering programmes on occupational health and safety, women’s rights and cultural issues.

“Last year, we did three trainings with migrants who were interested in being broadcasters, DJs or journalists,” Burmese migrant worker and MAP community broadcaster Lan Moon told IPS.

Originally from the south of Shan State in Myanmar, Lan Moon came to Thailand 25 years ago at the age of six with his aunt and grandmother to escape fighting between the Shan army and the Burmese government.

He believes that radio forms a kind of “lifeline” between workers who would otherwise live and labour alone and whole communities that can offer support and information or simply commiserate about long hours or reminisce about home.

According to Pollock, cultivating a community of listeners did not happen overnight. MAP spent many years conducting weekly visits to areas where migrants live and work to distribute information about health and childcare, and used word of mouth to keep migrants up to date with national policies that might affect their jobs.

Now, in addition to the radio stations, the organisation has created 19 spaces along the border specifically for women to come together. “They organise themselves, sometimes invite speakers or hold discussion groups,” Pollock added.

Currently there are an estimated 2.5 million migrant workers in Thailand. The vast majority originates from Myanmar due to confiscation of land, human rights abuses or a lack of jobs and economic opportunities back home.

Although Article 2.2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Thailand is a signatory, ensures the equality of rights between nationals and non-nationals, the majority of migrants here are subjected to poor working and living conditions, lower wages and long working hours.

Registered migrants are also eligible for state health insurance schemes and are technically allowed to avail themselves of state medical services for a low fee. However, for most foreign workers, language barriers and the constant threat of discrimination or deportation hinders access to even these most basic rights.

For people like Gao, MAP has not only been a source of relief in times of distress – providing meals, shelter and necessary documents — it has also provided him an alternate occupation.

Following a crackdown on migrants in Chiang Mai, Gao says he “started volunteering with MAP’s crisis support group”.

“We help migrants get to the hospital or gain access to health care. It’s really important that migrants are informed about how to access proper health care because if one’s health isn’t good then life isn’t good.”

(END)