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Public Budget and Human Rights A Brazilian experience of enhancing social participation in public policy-making

Public Budget and Human Rights A Brazilian experience of enhancing social participation in public policy-making. Institute for Socioeconomic Studies. THE BRAZILIAN DIFFICULT ROAD TO DEMOCRACY AND THE ROLE OF NGOS.

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Public Budget and Human Rights A Brazilian experience of enhancing social participation in public policy-making

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  1. Public Budget and Human Rights A Brazilian experience of enhancing social participation in public policy-making Institute for Socioeconomic Studies

  2. THE BRAZILIAN DIFFICULT ROAD TO DEMOCRACY AND THE ROLE OF NGOS • Democracy and citizens participation is a relatively new phenomenon in the Brazilian history. Most of the time our history was dominated by an authoritarian state, dedicated to maintain the order and to server as an instrument to increase the power and the profits of the dominant elites of each period. • The Military Dictatorship (1964 – 1985): the beginning of a long night • The NGO sector is a central part of this history as a space of convergence for social activists, intellectuals and a new generation of human rights and environmental defenders. New movements become protagonists in the public life (women, environmentalists, indigenous, street children, urban neighbourhood associations and others).

  3. NEW CHALLENGES FOR THE REALIZATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS • Public Debt – 30% of the Brazilian Federal Budget is expended in interests, charges and amortization of the public debt, due to a contractionist monetary policy, with high interest rate (In the 2000-2007 period, the federal budget spent US$ 429.54 billion) • Tax justice - Brazilianpublic budget is financedbythepoorpeopleandappropriatedbythewealthydue to a regressivetaxation over consumption. • Brazilian development model - excluded and unsustainable that has not been able to guarantee the fair distribution of the benefits of this development for all: Agrobusiness ( sugar cane, ethanol, soybean, meat); Big infrastructural and hydroeletricpower projects in Amazon Forest. This model stimulated by Brazilian government is incoherent with many statements done by Brazil in international arenas.

  4. INESC - Background information • The history of Inesc goes together with the democratic trajectory in Brazil. It was founded in 1979 by Maria José Jayme (Bizeh) • It was an important player during key moments in the early years of the democratic transition: Amnesty Law, Presidential Direct Elections Bill (1984) and New Constitution (1988) • Since 1991 Inesc has developed strategies related to budget process. We use budget tools as the basis for strengthening and fostering citizenship rights. • We participate onnational and international human rights, environmental, social and economic networks and have developed budget monitoring projects in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Central America and Netherlands.

  5. Budget and rights A budget analysis method from the perspective of human rights.

  6. Public budget andhuman rightsan approach • In what extend, the governments put the citizens rights and freedoms as priority. • How public funds are collected and distributed. ; • The existing power relationships within society; • Who primarily contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development. Public Budget analysis is an entry point for discussing:

  7. HumanRightsRealization

  8. Methodology of publicbudget analysis from the perspectiveof human rights. GOAL To establish concrete relations between public budget, guarantee of rights and confrontation of social inequalities; CHALLENGE To create an understandable and simple instrument to analyze public policies and the budget to be used by INESC and also other civil society organizations.

  9. Public Budget andHumanRights • Apply the maximum of its available resources to promote human rights (ICESCR obligation – art. 2); • Promote the progressive implementation of human rights – civil, political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, sexual and reproductive rights (ICESCR obligation – art. 2); • Guarantee the ESCR without discrimination of any kind as race, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, birth or other status; • Ensure its financing with social justice, (including the fair distribution of revenues that came from the exploitation of natural resources) . The State should:

  10. Keyquestions How public policies are financed? In other words, who is financing the taxes collected by State? The poorest? The richest? To what degree are government programs and actions actually implementing rights and combating inequalities? How transparent is the budget for the public? Who has taken benefits from the resources produced by the society?

  11. BUDGET CYCLE • We consider the National Congress and the Executive Power as key arenas to influence the Budget Process, due to the way the Brazilian Budgetary Law defines the process.

  12. INESC Institute for Socioeconomic Studies WorkingwithHumanRightsand Budget in PublicSchools

  13. ONDA (WAVE) Adolescentes fighting for theirrights Since 2007, INESC has conduced a project to educate youths in human rights and public budget. It is called ONDA (WAVE). The project has organized workshops based on the principles of popular and art education, in which participation is vital to developing new knowledge for social transformation.

  14. ONDA (WAVE) Adolescentes fighting for theirrights At least 500 teenagers from ten public schools in the Federal District have participated in this project.

  15. ONDA (WAVE) Adolescentes fighting for theirrights The heart of the educational process are the workshops in the schools. • It is a 5 days workshop that brings the follow content: • Human Rights; • Democratic Participation and State obligations; • Public Budget; • Communication and Advocacy Strategies.

  16. ONDA (WAVE) Adolescentes fighting for theirrights The ONDA project have been presented amendments to the Budget Bill in the local parliament in order to renovate schools of Federal District. In 2009, this advocacy process lead by the teenagers managed to approve a budget suggestion of US$1 million to improve the conditions of schools (to build sports courts and auditoriums and to renovate toilets).

  17. ONDA (WAVE) Adolescentes fighting for theirrights The teenagers also produced a magazine that deals with human rights issues related to budget. Due to its success, this project was awarded a SocialTechnology Prize by the Bank of Brazil Foundation . Thank you! IaraPietricovsky de Oliveira INESC´s Co-Director www.inesc.org.br iarap@inesc.org.br

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