Rights Now! World poverty and the Oxfam campaign

8/7/2019 Rights Now! World poverty and the Oxfam campaign

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Published by Oxfam (UK and Ireland)First pub lished 1995

Oxfam (UK and Ireland) 1995A catalogue record for this publication is available from the BritishLibrary

ISBN 0 85598 338 8

Available in Ireland from Oxfam in Ireland, 19 Clanwilliam Terrace,Dublin 2 (tel. 01 661 8544).Published by Oxfam (UK and Ireland), 274 Banbury Road, OxfordOX2 7DZ, UKFront cover pho tograp h by Marc French/OxfamDesigned by Oxfam Design Department OX370/PK/95Typeset in Palatino an d Franklin G othicPrinted by Oxfam P rint UnitOxfam is registered as a charity, no. 202918

This book converted to digital file in 2010


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RIGHTSW!World Poverty and the Oxfam CampaignDave Dalton

OxfamUK and Ireland


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Our comm on hum anity transcends the oceansand all national boundaries ... Let it never be askedof any of us: w hat did we do wh en we knew another

was oppressed?Nelson Mandela,President, Republic of South Africa

Absolute poverty is a condition of life so limitedby malnu trition, illiteracy, disease,

squalid su rrou ndings, high infant mortality,and low life expectancy as to be beneath any

reasonable definition of hum an decency.Robert McNamara,

President of the W orld Bank, 1978People's basic rights be long to all of us, andeverybody in Africa a nd South America andwherever has a right to these things,

just the same as us.Oxfam supporter

CAMPAIGN

together FOR


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Dights for all?Most of us in the rich countries of 'theNo rth' (Europe, No rth Am erica, Japan,and Australasia) can expect a long andhealthy life, security, and opportunity.Our children will be educated. Most ofus need never be cold, or hungry, orfrightened. We have a say in how ourcountries are run. M ost of the time w etake these things for grante d. We regardthem as rights.Over one billion people in the poorcountries of 'the South' (Africa, Asia,the M iddle East, Latin America, and theCaribbean) are denied m ost of the rightswhich we enjoy. Why are children in

Haiti scavenging on rubbish tips whenthey should be in school? Nearly 50years after the UN Universal Declar-ation of Human Rights, why are som any p eople still poor an d powerless?This booklet explains why. It showsthat the world could afford to abolishpoverty. It shows what people in theSouth are doing ab out their problems,and what Northern governments cando. And we' l l see how we as citizensand consumers can help. We canwork for a future for all of us, Northand South.


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stories behind the statisticsYour child comes to you in the eveningcarrying an empty m ilk pot and crying,'Where is my cow?' You say, 'Why areyou asking? Didn't it get ill and die?'But he keeps crying, 'Dada, give mesome milk. Mama, give me some milk.'Hearing this can make a personcommit suicide.(Ulikoro, a cattle-herder in a drought-stricken area of Ethiopia)

They say free trade is good for ourcountry: they say it will bring moreopportunity. But we can't competewith this American maize. How canthey produce it so cheap? What are weto do? Our only opportunity is to leaveour land and move to the city.(Miguel, a maize farmer in Mexico)I take my children to the building siteat 7.30. They play w hile I mix cement.The lorries rush by all day. You alwayswonder if your children will end upunder a wheel.(Palu, a 22-year-old woma n in Bangalore,South India)It's like being dead. Without legs, whatcan I do?(Jose Jamie, a farmer and father of sixchildren, interviewed in hospital inAngola, five days after stepping on an anti-personnel land mine)

The voices of Ulikoro, Miguel, Palu,and Jose tell the human stories thatstatistics only hint at. They tell us thatpoverty means frustration, fear,hunger, and insecurity.


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Thefacts35,300 children tteoaghout thewerM die every iay because theyare poor.Ha If a miltton wom en die each yearbecause they don't receive thehesltfc care they need when theyare pregnant.13CJ million children do not go toprifnary school.i80 i>er cent of all illness in the worldis caused by drinking dirty water.18 ^million people are refugees, anda ftjirfher 24 million are displacedwithin their own countries.

ilOdmilHon people were affected byfanjineinl990.Women own one per cent of theworld's property.Thej North, with 25 per cent of thewoild's population, consumes 80per jcent offiveworld 's energy.

Looking at the statistics of poverty, youmight think that this is just the waythings are: "The poor are always withus.' But there is nothing inevitableabout poverty. The world can afford towipe it out. Governments and powerfulinstitutions choose not to. And ordinarypeople like us let them get away w ith it.

Good news at thegrassrootsPoor people struggle for theirrights, and with help they cansucceed. Democracy has come toSouth Africa; peace to El Salvadorand Mozambique. There's goodnews at the grassroots, too: farmersgrowing more sorghum in Kenya;families getting clean water inCambodia; village savings andcredit schemes in Indonesia;wom en learning to read and writein Senegal; immunisation forchildren in Jamaica. Local peopledo the work and take the risks;Oxfam provides help and advice;and things get better.


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B asic rightsTogether for rights,together againstpovertyEvery man, woman, and child has abasic right to a life free from m ise ry an dwa nt. Yet one tho usa nd million p eop learound the world live in poverty.Denied their basic rights, they aredenied the fullness of life that is theirbirthright.

Every perso n ha s ten basic rights: Enough to eat but 800 million

people are malnourished. Clean ivater but mo re than one

billion people are at risk fromcontaminated supplies.

A livelihood bu t 700 million p eopleare une m ploy ed in the South.

A home but millions of children liveon th e streets of the w orl d's cities. An education but there are 800

million illiterate people in the South. Health care but one child in ten in

the Sou th dies before th e age of five. A safe environment but in manySouthern countries workers are ex-posed to dangerous levels of pesti-

cides, in order to produce standard-sized, unblemished fruit for North-ern ma rkets. Protection from violence but there are82 large-scale conflicts currently

going on in the wo rld, and 90 per centof the casua lties are civilians.

Equa lity of opportunity but peopleare exploited or ignored for reasonsof race, sex, religion, or natio nality . A say in their future but poor

people are the last to be heard andthe first to suffer.


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These rights are a daily reality for m ostof us in the Nor th, so w hy shou ld theybe denied to so m any in the South?At the end of the Second World War theUnited Nations (UN), the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF), and the WorldBank were created, to ensure that nev eragain would violence and conflict beallowed to destroy lives, and never againwould poverty and mass unemploy-me nt be tolerated. The UN Charter andthe Universal Declaration of HumanRights recognised that all the peop les ofthe world hav e a range of civil, political,social, and economic rights. The realisa-tion of those basic rights would be amajor contribution to the fight againstpoverty. It wo uld give people the mea nsto wo rk for their own future.

These rights are recognised by almostevery government in the world, andthere has been some progress tow ardsmaking them a reality. But for manypeople these rights are being ignoredand undermined, and the result ispoverty.

Making rights a reality will costmoney. But the world can afford it.It would cost 6 billion a year toprovide basic education for allchildren. The wo rld's gove rnm entsspend 666 billion a year on arm iesand we apon s. An d African govern-ments have to spend more onrepaying debts to the North thanthey do on the health and educationof their c itizens.


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poverly and powerThe richer you are, the more power youhave. Of course, not everyone in theNorth is rich; and not everybody in theSouth is poor. There are rich and power-ful elites within Southern countries;right down to the smallest village andthe individual household, wealth andpower are not fairly shared. But most ofthe real power is in the North: it lies withNorthern governments; with big com-panies based in the North; and withinternational institutions like the UN,

IMF, and World Bank, which are domi-nated by Northern governments andNorthern interests. How are Northernpower and Southern povertyconnected?

DebtThe South owes the North 115 billion.Many countries have debts they cannever pay. This means two things.First, they are being sucked dry by thedebt: the South paid the North over 4billion in 1994. Second, the World Bankand IMF have enormous power overSouthern governments which owethem money. The 'adjustments' whichthey demand in return for loans such as cutting government spendingand imposing charges for socialservices hurt ordinary people most.What hope for poor people's right tohealth care and education?

TradePoor countries are under pressure toopen their markets to goods from theNorth. But our markets are often closedto goods from the South. We pay lowprices for commodities produced in theSouth, like coffee and copper; and wedump heavily subsidised food exports,like surplus beef from the EuropeanUnion, on Southern markets, under-

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cutting local producers. What hope dopoor people have for the right to alivelihood?

EnvironmentThe impact of the average US citizen onthe environ me nt is 250 times that of theaverage African. If everyone on theplanet were to achieve Northern levelsof cons um ption, two extra plane t Earthswould be needed. Northern lifestylesare fundamentally unsustainable.If power stations and vehicle exhaustscontinue to emit carbon d ioxide at ever-increasing levels, and more and moreforests which absorb carbon dioxide are chopped dow n, temperatures arelikely to rise. Global warming maycreate more deserts, and will certainlycause sea-levels to rise. Low-lyingcountries will suffer, but those in theNorth, like the Netherlands, can affordto protect themselves better than thosein the South, like Bangladesh. Whathope for poor people's right to a safeenvironment?

ArmamentsPowerful groups in the Southsquander money on armaments .For just 16 per cent of what theycurrently spend on weapons, theworld's poorest countries couldgive all children a basic education,reduce child deaths by one third,and provide clean water suppliesfor everyone.

The rich make therulesThe rich make the rules, and the poorstay poor or get poorer. Yet most ofthe gove rnm ents which mak e the ruleshave signed the declarations of h um anrights. It 's time they delivered whatthey promised.


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campaigning worksAre you concerned about worldpoverty? Despite the powerful forcesthat keep people poor, you are notpowerless. As a citizen, you have avoice and a vote. As a consumer, youhave a choice. People like you are cam-paigning for Fair Trade, helping peoplelike Florence Muhindo (picturedbelow), from Kenya.Florence is poor because the price shegets for the coffee she grows is so low.She is one of millions made poor by

unfair trade. Farmers growing com-modities like coffee, tea, or cocoa,workers in textile and clothingfactories, miners producing copper ortin all are denied a decent livelihoodin a system dominated by the interestsof the North.Oxfam, along with other developmentagencies, wants to see Third Worldproducers like Florence getting adecent price for their products.Shoppers in this country like the ideatoo: 85 per cent of people surveyed saidthey would like to see more Fair Tradeproducts in their supermarkets. It'stime for people-friendly shopping.Oxfam has been trading fairly since1965. Oxfam's Bridge programmebuys crafts and foods from ThirdWorld producers on Fair Trade terms.Crafts producers are given highpriority, because they often have noland of their own on which to growfood. Bridge goods are sold through625 Oxfam shops up and down thecountry, and to 40,000 people by mail-order catalogue. Bridge staff here andoverseas provide advice and trainingon design, marketing, and otherpractical matters.Since 1992 Oxfam has campaigned tomove Fair Trade into the mainstream:

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into the supermarkets, where mostpeople do their shopping. Now con-sumers everywhere can buy Cafedirect a high-quality coffee, made frombeans bought at a fair price, direct fromsmall-scale producers. Cafedirect soldits millionth pack of ground coffee inMarch 1994. Instant Cafedirect cameout in the summer of 1994.More Fair Trade products, like tea andchocolate, are arriving. The indepe-ndent Fairtrade Mark helps shoppers toidentify products which give a betterdeal to Third World producers andrespect the local environment.Since 1992, Oxfam's campaigningsupporters have been w riting letters tosupermarkets and organising coffeetastings to promote Fair Trade. The

Guaranteesa better dealfor Third World

Producers FairtradeFair Trade campaign is a good exampleof how campaigning works. It's easy tojoin in. If you buy Fair Trade goods,you are giving direct support to thepeople who produce them in theSouth. As these products sell, moresupermarkets will make more prod-ucts available. So buy Fair Tradeproducts, and tell your friends aboutFair Trade. Use your voice and yourchoice.

You get great coffee... they .get aneducation"The higher price we get when wesell coffee to Cafedirect means thatnow our co-operative can afford topay a doctor who will give treatmentto our members. For myself, theprice difference has m eant that I canafford more food for my family andsend my children to school properlyequipped with pens and notebooksfor the first time."Jos$ Rivera Camp overde, coffee grower,Peru

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activeIn June 1995 Oxfam launched TheOxfam Campaign: Together For Rights,Together Against Poverty. Thousands ofordinary people in this country arejoining people in the South in theirstruggle for their rights. We can pressfor basic rights to be respected, forresources to be switched to makingthose rights a reality to create thepolitical will for change by showingour anger at the daily reality of povertyand suffering.Take the issue of anti-personnel mines.There are up to 110 million such minesscattered across 60 countries. Everyday more than 20 civilians are killed bythem, and more than double thatnumber are severely injured. And thatmeans pain and trauma for the victims,and families plunged into poverty.Oxfam works to help rehabilitate thevictims; to clear mines, and to makepeople aware of their dangers; and topress for a total ban on theirmanufacture, stockpiling, export, anduse. Oxfam is actively lobbyinggovernments, and has published abook on the scourge of mines. Oxfamcampaigners' letters to the relevantMinister resulted in our governmentbanning all anti-personnel minesexcept those that self-destruct or self-neutralise. But this is still not enough.The campaign for a total ban continues.

People in this country can join theOxfam Campaign by: raising money to help support

Oxfam's work, including itslobbying work;

raising awareness among the widerpublic; raising issues with the relevantdecision-makers, whether MPs,Ministers, the European Union, orthe United Nations.

The continuing work on Fair Tradeshows how effective ordinary people,acting together, can be. The OxfamCampaign will last five years, sospecific issues, targets, and actions willdevelop over that time. The first actionis to get as many signatures as possibleon a Global Charter for Basic Rights the rights listed on pages 6 and 7. TheCharter will demonstrate to govern-ments and other powerful bodies thatthere is a widespread popular desire todefend basic rights, and a demand foraction to bring an end to poverty.This is a global campaign. Campaign-ing for rights is happening in the Northand South.In Brazil, the Hunger Campaign aimsto motivate citizens to tackle thepoverty in their own country. Brazil is

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the world's second largest agriculturalexpo rter; bu t in 1994 32 million peo pleou t of a total pop ula tion of 154 millionwere living in absolute poverty. Onethird of all Brazilians do not haveenough to eat, and the HungerCam paign aims to pu t pov erty high onthe political agen da.In Zambia, Oxfam encouraged ordi-nary people to write letters to worldleaders, describing how their lives hadbeen affected by the country's policieson debt and structural adjustment,prescribed b y the World Bank and IMF.

The letters 15,000 of them weretaken by Lucy Muyoyeta, Oxfam'sZambia Representative, to KennethClarke MP, Chancellor of theExchequer, at the September 1993meeting of the IMF. There Mr Clarkebacked Oxfam's call for debt relief forAfrica, and in 1994 the leaders of theseven largest industrialised nationsagreed better terms for spreadingrepay me nts and w riting off debts.Together North and South, lobbyistsand campaigners, citizens andconsumers we can make a difference.

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A n agenda for changeA world in which rights can become areality must provide opportunity, parti-cipation, a fairer distribution of wealthand power, peace and security, and asafe and sustainable environmentforall people.

Participation

OpportunityAccess to basic health and educationservices should be universal. To makethe rights to health and education areality, Southern governments should: cut user charges on basic services; greatly reduce military spending; and redirect funds into basic socialservices.Northern donors should increase aidand make sure that at least 20 per centis spent on basic social services.There should be a co-ordinatedstrategy and improved terms for debtrelief, including: writing off 80-100 per cent of debtsowed to Northern governments; agreement on new measures totackle the growing crisis of debtowed to international institutionslike the IMF, to be financed from

within these institutions.

Democratic institutions need to becreated and strengthened, from villageassociations to an independent judic-iary, to give people the right to a voice.

A fairer distribution ofwealth and powerResources, particularly land andcredit, must be more fairly distributed ,so that poor women and men can havethe means to earn a living.The World Bank should make poverty-reduction the goal of economic reformsand involve poor people in their design.All forms of discrimination againstwomen m ust be outlawed, so that, forexample, they can own and inheritland and have the right to be paid at thesame rates as men.Poor producers should receive fairprices for their commodities. Doublestandards in closing rich world marketsto poor producers while pushing openpoor countries' markets should beended. Rich countries should stop over-producing and dumping subsidisedexports on poor countries.

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Con sum ers can help poor produce rs toget a fair price for their lab ou r by: buying Fair Trade goods wherever

possible; pu tting p ressu re on retailers an dsuppliers to make more Fair Tradegoods available.

Peace and securityGovernments should strengthen theUN's capacity to prevent and resolveconflict, quickly and effectively. Theyshould set up a permanent rapid-deployment force, ready to be sentinstantly to conflict zones, togetherwith human-rights monitors. Theyshould invest in preventive diplomacyand redu cing poverty.The international community shoulddo more to help countries to rebuildafter conflict.Action is needed to reduce theinternational arms trade, including aworldwide ban on the manufacture,stockpiling, export, and use of anti-personnel mines.

A safe and sustainableenvironmentAction by rich indus trialised coun triesshould include: demonstrating their commitment to

the recommendations of the RioEarth Summ it Agenda 21, by

providing the resources which theypledged; reducing their own energy use, withtougher energy-efficiency standards,building-insulation schemes, invest-ment in renewable energy sourcessuch as solar or wind power, and taxpenalties for over-exploitation ofnatu ral resources;

comm itting themselves to reducecarbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent from 1989 levels by 2005.Individuals can act locally to protecttheir environm ent, by saving energy a ndrecycling resources wherev er possible.

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Find out moreKnowledge is powerYou could make yourself a moreeffective campaigner for rights bydoing some more reading. All thebooks listed below are published byOxfam (UK and Ireland); they areavailable from local bookshops or byringing 01202 715555.Words Into Action: Basic Rights and theCampaign against World Povertyby Pat SimmonsThe Oxfam Poverty Reportby Kevin WatkinsNo Time to Waste: Poverty and the GlobalEnvironmentby Joan Davidson and Dorothy MyersOne Earth, Two Worldsby John Barraclough and Dave DaltonThe Trade Trap: Poverty and the GlobalCommodity Marketsby Belinda Coote

A Buyer's Market: Global Trade, SouthernPoverty, and Northern Actionby Dave DaltonA Case for Reform: 50 Years of the IMFand the World Bankby Oxfam Policy Department

Together for rights,together againstpovertyGet together with like-minded peopleto campaign more effectively. To jointhe Oxfam Campaign, just write to:The Operations Centre, Oxfam House274 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7DZTelephone: 01865 312456Together we can defeat poverty. Jointhe Campaign and start making adifference.

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Rights Now! World poverty and the Oxfam campaign

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