Francine Mestrum, Brussels , Global Social Justice
At the Asia-Europe’s People’s Forum (AEPF) of July 2016 in Ulaan Bator, Mongolia, some people sat together and decided to take an initiative for a global charter on social protection rights.
The main reason was that we are concerned about the distress of people all over the world, faced with multiple problems of war, environmental degradation and climate change, rising inequalities and persistent poverty, economic crises, austerity policies and growing authoritarianism, erosion of all human rights, discrimination and intolerance …
There surely are many differences between countries in the North and the South, but the main tendencies are similar, and even though social policies are better developed in the North, today, they are also threatened by austerity policies.
Furthermore, all our economies, our labour markets and our societies have changed. Welfare states that were developed more than half a century ago, do not respond anymore to the needs of people today. This means we have to re-think our protection systems in order to improve them, include some environmental rights and make them transformative. We continue to dream of another, a better world.
Social protection certainly is not a panacea, but we do believe that peace is impossible without social justice. And we do believe that social justice should be the major concern for all alternative progressive forces, since this is what all people, everywhere, are striving for.
We now have a draft text for our global charter and are proud to be able to present it. Please go and look at www.globalsocialprotectioncharter.eu.
We very much would like your feedback, amendments and, most of all, your support. The short text is a kind of synthesis of the longer one and should make campaigning easier.
We would like to draw your attention on the following points:
You may wonder, why do we need a new text? We already have an International Covenant on economic and social rights, and there are several regional treaties or conventions. However, we do not have a specific text about rights to a universal, transformative social protection.
We also welcome and support the ILO Recommendation on Social Protection Floors, although we think this is rather minimal. We very much appreciate the ILO repeats that social protection is a human right, but the recommendation also bears some of the characteristics of the now dominant neoliberal approach to social protection. It is very much at the service of the economy.
Our main objective therefore is to promote a different perspective on social protection, one that goes beyond the traditional rights, that encompasses environmental needs and bridges the unacceptable gap between production and reproduction. Social protection is not a correction mechanism for the economic system, but should be transformative, that is, contribute to a better system and to the sustainability of life.
Our draft is not a text with demands, but with principles. Demands can differ from country to country, depending on the priorities of local groups. We hope these principles can serve as a reference for all movements concerned about social justice.
The core persons having worked at this initiative are (in their personal capacity and in alphabetical order):
Maris dela Cruz, Manila, Network for Transformative Social Protection
Armando De Negri, Sao Paulo, World Social Forum on Health and Social Security
Koen De Tavernier, Brussels, World Solidarity
Tina Ebro, Manila, Dignidad
Chandan Kumar, New Delhi, Action Aid India
Meena Menon, New Delhi, researcher
Francine Mestrum, Brussels, Global Social Justice
Lidi Nacpil, Manila, Alliance against Inequality
www.globalsocialprotectioncharter.eu
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