INTERNATIONAL: A branch chief at Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has appealed for building a people-centered economy to promote human rights.
Todd Howland, director of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of OHCHR made the appeal at the ongoing 2021 South-South Human Rights Forum in Beijing on Wednesday.
He has mentioned that nations need an economy that works for everyone, that is people and planet-centered, and thereby enhances the level of respect for human rights. Human rights including the rights to health, education, social protection should be treated as useful guardrails for economic policies and business decisions.
Howland has reviewed the organization’s efforts in developing the people-oriented economy in nearly 100 countries last year. They have implemented seating change projects in 39 countries often related to budget analysis in human rights. Some related to tax form, some related to fees and taxes on extractive industries, some related to corruption and others related to creating disaggregated data to understand why certain communities have been left behind. The work is critical as it can't fight poverty and it can't also leave no one behind without using macroeconomic tools like tax and budget or without making sufficient investment in health, education, social protection or other rights like participation.
Concretely, there is a lot of room to put people first. Examples include public procurement, consumer choices, pension and investment funds, all should have human rights enhancement as their end. Why do companies that use plastic wrap that will take 500 years to decompose and may even contribute to cancer or endangered wildlife pay the same tax on profit as a different company that uses decomposable wrap? National, state and local officials should do a human rights assessment when considering tax reform or passing their budgets to ensure that it is people-centered.
He made clear that human rights is a shared project. If respected and applied, equitable development and peace are within reach if all use a human rights-based approach. There will always be different approaches to politics and the economy, but human rights apply across differences for everyone to create inclusive, green and people-centered societies. Howland said more efforts should be made to achieve the ambitious goal.
Themed "putting people first and global human rights governance," the two-day 2021 South-South Human Rights Forum was jointly hosted by China's State Council Information Office and the Chinese Foreign Ministry. About 400 high-level government officials, diplomatic envoys, representatives of international organizations, experts, and scholars from around the world attended the gathering both in person and online.
