Experts Argue for Human Rights Approach Against Poverty

Catherine Sasman

21 July 2011

THE provision of Government services should be done from a rights-based approach, and government policies should be anchored on human rights principles, said the acting director of the Human Rights and Documentation Centre (HRDC) at Unam, John Nakuta.

This was also the conclusion reached at a conference held on Tuesday which sought to clarify the legal status of economic, social and cultural (ESC) rights.

Delegates at the event also held that judicial activism and the use of the court system should be used to enforce these rights as an effective remedy to a violation thereof.

But they expressed concern over the low level of understanding and recognition of ESC rights, which they said should be used to alleviate povertyy.

Attitudes towards these rights by governments and even academics are often hostile, and seen as not “real rights” but rather as political aspirations, programmatic, and vague.

Nakuta said the conference was an attempt to debunk the notion that these rights are not on par with civil and political rights that require funding from governments.

Similarly there was acknowledgement that ESC rights do in fact require governments to use their resources, as is evidenced in the long drawn-out Caprivi treason trial and prison services.

And, he said, these rights should not be subject to the whims of governments.

“Namibia’s levels of poverty and inequality are on the increase because there is no obligation on government to enforce these rights,” said Nakuta.

According to the 1993 Vienna Declaration on Human Rights, all rights are equal, despite the overemphasis on civil and political rights.

The Namibian Constitution does make provision for social assistance from Government, but while it states that Government should “work towards” decent living standards, Article 101 states that ESC rights are not directly enforceable by court.

This, said Nakuta, is a misnomer, in so far as socio-economic rights ensure a life of dignity.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on ESC rights, which was ratified by Namibia in 1995 guarantees some of these rights.

An immediate outcome of the conference is that the HRDC was tasked to assist in the compilation of a civil society shadow report for consideration of the Namibian country report on the ESC rights to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Namibia has not yet submitted such a report, which is due every five years.

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