ANNEX: 1. Promoting the Rights to Health and a Healthy Environment in the Ecuadorian Amazon: A Case Study in Advocacy around Eco

-- Chris Jochnick, Center for Economic and Social Rights¹

1. Introduction

The global human rights movement has undergone a flurry of change over the past decade. The success of human rights in bringing reforms to many repressive countries and the new political space sparked by the end of Cold War has reinvigorated rights at both the international and national levels. Conferences on women’s rights, indigenous rights, environmental rights, rights to food and housing, are indicative of the new directions pushing the human rights agenda. Economic, social and Cultural Rights (ESCR) have finally made it onto the radar screens of many human rights groups and may be the fastest growing area of human rights.

Nonetheless, the field of ESCR offers little concetely to celebrate, particularly in Latin America. While civil and political rights (CPR) can point to a number of successes, most developing countries have probably suffered a worsening of ESCR. Latin America is the most unequal of all the continents and economic growth has done little to improve the well being of the vast majorities in each country while adding to the debt burden, depleting natural resources, and contaminating the environment.

The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has declared that “a State party in which any significant number of individuals is deprived of essential foodstuffs, of essential primary health care, of basic shelter and housing, or of the most basic forms of education is, prima facie, failing to discharge its obligations under the covenant.”² To take Ecuador (the focus of this case study) as fairly representative, compare the Committee’s observations with those of the government’s research institute: “In 1995, more than 6 million Ecuadorians had income levels that did not even permit them to satisfy their basic needs. The poverty in Ecuador is massive. Fifty-six percent of the population is poor and suffers from deprivation or risks satisfaction of their basic needs, and one-fifth (20%) is indigent and unable to cover their nutritional requirements.³ According to the World Bank, more than 70% of Ecuadorians now live in poverty and almost half of all children are malnourished, and Ecuador is by no means an extreme case.

While the massive neglect and violation of ESCR makes it easy to grow cynical about the prospects for these rights, it also underscores the overwhelming urgency of finding effective strategies to promote them. This paper describes both the positive and negative factors facing potential ESCR advocates and uses a case study from the Ecuadorian Amazon to illustrate some strategies based on these factors.