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The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 15
- Paragraph text
- As the magnitude of the disaster became known, key international officials carefully avoided acknowledging that the outbreak had resulted from discharges from the MINUSTAH camp. The implication that cholera had come from elsewhere also drew support from an environmental theory suggested by some scientific observers according to which the cholera microbe is naturally present in many backwater settings and can be activated by environmental shocks such as the earthquake that hit Haiti in January 2010 or by unusually heavy rains. Nevertheless, most scientific and media sources rejected this theory and placed the blame clearly upon the peacekeepers.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
Marginality of economic and social rights 2016, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- It has been suggested that "countries are choosing social rights constitutionalism over other ways to promote well-being and the fulfilment of basic human needs". A systematic and detailed study of economic and social rights in national constitutions provides detailed evidence to support this optimistic assessment; 195 constitutions were examined with a view to identifying which of 16 separate economic and social rights were recognized and, where they were recognized, whether the constitutions classified them as justiciable or aspirational (such as directive principles of State policy). Over 90 per cent of the Constitutions recognized at least one economic and social right. In around 70 per cent of the Constitutions, at least one economic and social right was explicitly justiciable and around 25 per cent of them recognized 10 or more justiciable economic and social rights. In order of frequency, the justiciable rights concerned education, trade unions, health care, social security, child protection and environmental protection. The study found that those six rights appear in over half of all Constitutions.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 37
- Paragraph text
- Fourth, the Haiti case is clearly distinguishable from the Rwanda and Srebrenica claims, both of which alleged a failure by peacekeepers to fulfil the essence of their mandate and raised issues of operational judgment as opposed to a failure to avoid spreading a highly infectious and lethal disease. The Kosovo case is closer to the Haitian case, but might arguably be distinguished by the facts that UNMIK operated as an interim administration in Kosovo and that the United Nations should not be held responsible for contamination which pre-dated its arrival. It is noteworthy that the non-receivability classification did not prevent the Human Rights Advisory Panel established by the United Nations to examine cases of alleged human rights violations in Kosovo from holding in 2016 that "UNMIK was responsible for compromising irreversibly the life, health and development potential" of the child complainants.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Humanitarian
- Person(s) affected
- Children
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- In order to resolve the controversy, the Secretary-General, to his credit, established the panel of independent experts in January 2011. In its report, issued in May 2011, the panel expressly rejected the environmental theory. Instead, it found that "the evidence overwhelmingly supports the conclusion that the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination of the Mèyé Tributary of the Artibonite River with a pathogenic strain of current South Asian type Vibrio cholerae as a result of human activity". If the experts had left it at that, the conclusion would have been that MINUSTAH peacekeepers were responsible for the outbreak. But they went on to claim that the dumping of faeces alone "could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies … coupled with conducive environmental and epidemiological conditions". By adding this observation, the experts suggested that nature, as well as the country's underdevelopment, were also to blame. This enabled them to reach their ultimate conclusion, that the "outbreak was caused by the confluence of circumstances … and was not the fault of, or deliberate action of, a group or individual".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 35
- Paragraph text
- Second, the duties owed by the United Nations are directly analogous to those owed by a company or private property owner to ensure adequate waste management and to take adequate precautions to prevent spreading diseases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Food & Nutrition
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 40
- Paragraph text
- The global media has been systematically critical of the United Nations. For example, the Economist has accused the United Nations of dodging its responsibility, the New York Times argues that it has "failed to face up to its role in [Haiti's] continuing tragedy", Business Insider has referred to the cholera outbreak as "the UN's Watergate", the Washington Post has commented that "by refusing to acknowledge responsibility, the United Nations jeopardizes its standing and moral authority".
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Humanitarian
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Almost four years after the initial spillage, a report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services Internal Audit Division, whose public release was long delayed, found that the regulatory framework for effective waste management in MINUSTAH continued to be unsatisfactory, a rating that signified that "critical and/or pervasive important deficiencies" existed.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The UN responsibility for the cholera outbreak in Haiti 2016, para. 23
- Paragraph text
- Because the position taken by United Nations officials relies heavily on the claim that there remains doubt as to the source of the cholera outbreak and invokes the panel's report in support, it is appropriate both to assess the validity of the panel's consistently cited assessment and to consider more recent scientific assessments. Before doing so, it should be noted that there is a fundamental inconsistency in the panel's conclusions. After stating clearly that "the source of the Haiti cholera outbreak was due to contamination", the report goes on to say that "[t]he introduction of this cholera strain as a result of environmental contamination with feces could not have been the source of such an outbreak without simultaneous water and sanitation and health care system deficiencies". Presumably, the panel intended to say that the contamination could not alone have been the sole cause, had there not been deficiencies in the environment into which the faeces were released. But that is not in fact what the report states.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Year
- 2016
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 32
- Paragraph text
- One context in which the relevance of human rights might have been expected to be acknowledged is the environmental and social "safeguard" policies of the Bank. However, the current safeguards contain no explicit human rights policy and the sole reference to human rights occurs in operational policy 4.10 on indigenous peoples. Human rights have sometimes had an indirect influence on the interpretation of the safeguard policies by the World Bank Inspection Panel, but the practice in that regard has been inconsistent and piecemeal.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 39
- Paragraph text
- The principal exception to that general rule has been the issue of human rights. As theories of development have changed and the Bank has confronted new challenges, legal counsels have had no difficulty in justifying the engagement of the Bank with issues such as corruption, the rule of law, environmental degradation and other novel issues. Alone among those new issues, human rights is classified as political rather than economic, despite the view of a former General Counsel that "human rights are an intrinsic part of the Bank's mission". Today, it is still the Legal Department that takes the lead in "policing" the human rights taboo within the Bank. That is said to apply even within the discussions in the Executive Board.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 48
- Paragraph text
- There is a vast difference, however, between having a carefully tailored human rights policy and becoming an enforcer of rights. Many other international organizations have adopted such policies; none of them have become enforcers. The established international human rights regime exists to engage with States that are accused of violations and to find ways to encourage, facilitate and promote compliance with international norms. There is no reason why that task would or should move to the Bank if it were to acknowledge that human rights are also relevant to its operations. There are many ways in which the Bank can encourage or even assist States to design policies and projects that are consistent with the obligations that those States have voluntarily undertaken through the ratification of binding international treaties. It is especially noteworthy in this respect that the Bank safeguards already require it to take account of the international environmental treaty obligations of a country when undertaking an environmental assessment and it has managed to do that without giving rise to undue controversy.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 56a
- Paragraph text
- [The challenge of putting questions of resources and redistribution back into the human rights equation has several dimensions:] The nature of the obligation to ensure respect for civil and political rights has been treated all too often as implying that resource considerations are not relevant in evaluating governmental compliance with the relevant international obligations. In other words, questions of the availability of resources and equality of access to those resources were largely eliminated from the most vibrant parts of the international human rights system, and relegated instead to the minor league discussions about economic, social and cultural rights. In the latter context, ironically, they were given overwhelming importance, such that the qualification contained in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that a State's obligations extended only to the maximum of its available resources is often invoked to excuse basic non-compliance;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 36
- Paragraph text
- Although one of the Open Working Group's proposed goals is aimed at reducing inequalities, the Special Rapporteur has observed that human rights norms are almost absent from the proposal (see A/69/297, paras. 45-49). In his synthesis report the Secretary-General attributed far greater importance to them, although he did not explicitly discuss the relationship between inequalities and human rights. The link was however acknowledged in statements calling for a future free from poverty and built on human rights, equality and sustainability, a post-2015 agenda built on the principles of human rights and the rule of law, equality and sustainability, and again in the linking of the challenges of reinforcing human rights, equality and sustainability (see A/69/700, paras. 18, 49 and 82). More generally, the Secretary-General underscored the need to continue to remedy the policy incoherence between current modes of international governance in matters of trade, finance and investment on the one hand, and the norms and standards for labour, the environment, human rights, equality and sustainability on the other (ibid., para. 95). He also acknowledged an indirect link between human rights and inequality by juxtaposing the value of dignity with deepening inequality, thus implying that inequality undermined human dignity.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- Safeguards for investment project financing within a new environmental and social framework are expected to be adopted by the end of 2015. In late 2014, 28 special procedures mandate holders addressed a lengthy and detailed analysis of the July 2014 draft framework to the World Bank. The Special Rapporteur notes that his own position is adequately summarized in the letter, in which the authors state that "the document seems to go out of its way to avoid any meaningful references to human rights and international human rights law, except for passing references in the vision statement and environmental and social standard (ESS) 7." Unfortunately, the second draft, which is about to be released, is no improvement in that regard, despite voluminous submissions by large numbers of stakeholders calling upon the Bank to take account of human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- It is often suggested that obliging the Bank to take human rights into account would place it at a disadvantage to other lenders, which might not do so. In 2006, the then President of the Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, criticized the Government and banks of China for not attaching human rights and environmental standards to their loans to Africa. In 2011, China overtook the Bank in the volume of its development lending. The creation of new multilateral investment banks and the growth of national development banks in countries like Brazil and India, means ever more competition in the market for lenders. While the World Bank has always downplayed such suggestions, most commentators suggest that those developments have placed it under competitive pressure.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- In fact, if the major new banks do not adopt appropriate social protection policies, there would be good reason to assume that the Bank will be less able to compete in terms of the time taken for project planning, the conditions offered to borrowers and the speed of disbursement. Both the New Development Bank, which proclaims itself "as an alternative to the existing US-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund", and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank were set up in 2015. The Articles of Agreement of both banks reproduce the same political prohibition clause as is contained in the Articles of Agreement of the World Bank. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is committed to addressing environmental and social impacts, but it remains to be seen what type of standards and safeguards will be adopted and how, if at all, human rights will be factored in. Those are issues that will warrant the most careful scrutiny going forward.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
The World Bank and human rights 2015, para. 83
- Paragraph text
- Another key principle in any Bank policy should be to encourage and assist Governments to meet their existing obligations under international law in relation to human rights. Other international organizations explicitly seek to do this and the Bank has long done it in relation to international environmental treaty obligations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2015
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 70
- Paragraph text
- Natural resources can be a vital source of revenue that the State can use to comply with its human rights obligations. The financial and social benefits of natural resource exploitation are, however, increasingly bypassing people in producing countries. In most countries, extractive industries generate few jobs directly and have only weak links to local markets. Far from bringing benefits, the exploitation of natural resources has been frequently linked to human rights abuse and encroachment on lands and livelihoods of communities, mass evictions, pollution and environmental degradation, which may result in violations of rights to health, food, housing and water. The right of people to participate in decisions regarding natural resources is often violated, especially where the land, territory and resources of indigenous peoples is concerned.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 79l
- Paragraph text
- [States must realize the full potential of tax collection as a tool to generate revenue for the fulfilment of human rights obligations and to redress discrimination and inequality. Human rights principles regarding participation, transparency, accountability and non-discrimination should be followed throughout the whole revenue-raising cycle. For this purpose, States should:] Ensure that extractive industries are subject to appropriate tax rates and export duties, and that the human rights of affected communities and future generations are protected in the exploitation of natural resources;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 73
- Paragraph text
- The political processes and policy choices that guide the capture and distribution of revenues from natural resource exploitation often determine whether they can be allocated for the progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights, poverty reduction and social development. Good macroeconomic management of natural resources, such as stabilization funds, exchange rate and monetary policies, and financial and industrial policies that foster diversification are critical to enabling inclusive and sustainable development from natural resource exploitation. Decisions about natural resource extraction must therefore be made with care, taking into account environmental concerns and the rights of future generations while respecting the rights of the entire population.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- For the past several years, the international community has been heavily focused on, and invested in, the process of drafting development goals for the post-2015 development agenda. On 19 July 2014, the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals released its proposals. For all the immense time and energy expended by proponents of both human rights and the Social Protection Floor Initiative, the results to date are stunningly meagre. Human rights as such have been thoroughly marginalized. There is a token nod in their direction in paragraph 7 of the draft outcome document of the Open Working Group, although rather than underlining their relevance to development, the paragraph merely records the fact that in the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, "The future we want", adopted by the General Assembly in resolution 66/288, "the importance of freedom, peace and security, respect for all human rights, including the right to development and the right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to food and water, the rule of law, good governance, gender equality, women's empowerment and the overall commitment to just and democratic societies for development" were reaffirmed, as was the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is only one other reference to human rights in the entire 21-page draft and that appears in the context of a list of issues to which "quality education" should be devoted.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The implementation of the right to social protection through the adoption of social protection floors 2014, para. 54
- Paragraph text
- The situation is made worse by the fact that some of the leading international human rights non-governmental organizations insist that resource distribution is a matter they cannot address. That position makes meaningful action to eliminate extreme poverty almost impossible and thus largely entrenches the status quo. Policies premised on the assumption that effective poverty elimination strategies need not involve resource redistribution are at odds with empirical realities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 71
- Paragraph text
- In addition, the rightful benefits in terms of revenue often go abroad (sometimes to tax havens), aided by the fact that extractive industries are often not required to disclose their profits on a project-by-project basis. The public revenue generated through taxes on the sector remains well below potential; the revenue secured by many resource-rich countries is very low in relation to the value of exports.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
Taxation and human rightss 2014, para. 72
- Paragraph text
- A State allowing or directly undertaking exploitation of natural resources without ensuring that a fair share of the proceeds are taxed and/or allocated towards fulfilling human rights could be an indication of a failure to mobilize adequate resources. Moreover, excessive reliance on revenues from finite natural resources raises concerns not only about long-term sustainability but also governance and accountability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2014
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Promising participatory practices have been implemented in a wide variety of contexts by actors including States, bilateral development agencies, United Nations agencies, civil society organizations and others. Prominent examples include participatory budgeting, environmental decision-making, slum surveys, citizen juries, social monitors and community scorecards. Much can be learned from such practices. Meaningful participation requires resources, time and planning, and should be seen as a process rather than an event, with multiple entry points through which members of the public can engage. However, evidence shows that it is possible, even in the most challenging of situations.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Unpaid care work and women's human rights 2013, para. 63
- Paragraph text
- In this section, the impacts of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, global migration and austerity measures will be examined, because of their profound ongoing effects on the unpaid care of women living in poverty.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Movement
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 33
- Paragraph text
- If not developed with the indigenous and tribal institutions or organizations that are truly representative of the peoples in question, consultations will not comply with the requirements of the Convention. Notably, in applying the Convention, several judgments of national and regional tribunals have found that the non-participation of indigenous groups in consultation or decision-making processes violated their rights and, as such, a broad set of measures have been judicially ordered, from the invalidation of approval of government projects especially in the mining, forestry and energy sectors, to remedies for those affected.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- Ethnic minorities
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Unpaid care work and women's human rights 2013, para. 104
- Paragraph text
- The construction of new roads, affordable public transport, low-cost electricity, solar and water energy for domestic purposes, and water and sanitation infrastructure are particularly crucial in this regard. In addition, States should increase construction of health care facilities and schools in underserved areas, as well as related infrastructure such as gender-segregated sanitation facilities. Where appropriate, village-level reforestation programmes and local rainwater harvesting schemes can also dramatically reduce the time women spend on water and fuel collection.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- Women
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 86d (ii)
- Paragraph text
- [In order to comply with their human rights obligations regarding the right to participation, the Special Rapporteur recommends States undertake the following actions:] Access to information: Take specific measures to provide State data to the public, in accessible formats and via appropriate channels for people living in poverty, in particular by: a. Publishing and disseminating regular information related to budgets (at local and national levels) and the quality of public services, including disaggregated data, in a non-technical and simplified form. b. Proactively disseminating legal information and other key documents for decision-making (e.g. environmental impact assessments), in all relevant languages.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The right to participation of people living in poverty 2013, para. 86f (ii)
- Paragraph text
- [In order to comply with their human rights obligations regarding the right to participation, the Special Rapporteur recommends States undertake the following actions:] Empowerment: Take all appropriate steps to enhance the capacity of people living in poverty to participate in public life, including by: a. Improving the accessibility and quality of education services provided to the poorest sectors of the population. b. Ensuring educational programmes transmit the necessary knowledge, including human rights education, to enable everyone to participate fully and on an equal footing at the local and national levels. c. Launching public education campaigns on issues that affect people living in poverty, such as the environment, human rights, development and budgeting processes.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Education
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph