Good Practice Example 1:
Using Parallel Reporting to Press
for Realisation of Economical, Social and Cultural Rights in Brazil
Organisation or name of the people who used this Strategy: Plataforma DhESC (ESCR Platform), Brazil
1. What is the Strategy about?
The tactic is about civil society parallel reporting to United Nations treaty bodies, in this case to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). A parallel report (also called a shadow, alternative or counter report) is a report written by organisations and people representing the civil society of a country. This report focuses on the government‘s compliance with its human rights obligations under a specific international treaty it is a party to. In this case it is the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966 (ICESCR) The report is a mechanism for monitoring, awareness raising, community mobilisation and advocacy.
A little background information on why parallel reports are called parallel reports:
Many countries have signed and ratified human rights treaties, but turning these treaties into government actions and realised rights has often seen many constraints. Each treaty obliges state governments to report periodically to a UN Committee on their efforts to realise the human rights they are bound to in that treaty. However, this does not always happen, as was the case with the ICESCR in Brazil.
2. What is the human rights situation the Strategy is addressing?
Although Brazil is one of the most industrialised countries of Latin America, there is a great socio-economic disparity between regions, ethnic groups and social classes. Especially rural and Afro-Brazilian communities suffer from poor living conditions. To use an example: in the rural state of Alagoas in the North East of the country, 62 percent of the population lives beneath the poverty line. This in contrast to the southern state Santa Carolina, where 12 percent of the predominantly white population lives in poverty. On a national scale, the average percentage of Afro-Brazilians living in poverty is 44, and 57 of the rural population.
In terms of national politics, there has been much effort to reduce this huge inequality. Brazil ratified the ICESCR in 1992. However, it was unclear at that time whether the Covenant obligations were fulfilled as the Brazilian government failed to comply with the requirement to investigate its policies and progress on respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights prescribed in the Covenant. For this reason, 18 non-govenmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society networks representing all parts of Brazil joined forces in 1999 to write a report to pressure the Brazilian government to do the same. By creating a Brazilian Platform on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Plataforma DhESC), grassroots organisations, community groups and human rights organisations had a space to share experiences and jointly create and present a Civil Society Report on what had and had not been done by the government in fulfillment of its obligations to the CESCR in 2000.
Presentation of a report by Plataforma DhESC did indeed prompt the Brazilian government to create an official report (2001). When it was to present its report to the CESCR in May 2003, Plataforma DhESC gathered its organisations once again to create a Parallel Report, making use of its initial Civil Society Report of 2000. This report aimed to provide a more balanced view based on gathered evidence on the reality of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) in Brazil. They presented this Parallel Report to the Committee in that same month, stressing the severe inequality that plagues Brazilian society and the need to overcome gender and ethnic discrimination as a condition to realise Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in Brazil.
3. What is unique about the Strategy?
The Brazilian system of monitoring its government‘s commitment to ESCR was innovative in different ways. To start with, it was the first time that civil society representatives worked together to create and present a parallel report on ESCR to the CESCR. This collective succeeded in a huge effort to unify, create solidarity and commit to a long-term process of awareness raising and holding the Brazilian state accountable for the fulfillment of ESCR. This process can be seen as the most powerful element: data was collected in a participatory way, public hearings provided all those affected with a voice to participate, and public awareness campaigns mobilised groups to develop a strong national movement in the struggle for ESCR. Secondly, parallel reporting holds great moral and political force, demonstrated by the Brazilian government‘s compulsion to report on their actions after the release of the Civil Society Report. Finally, Plataforma DhESC was and still is a space for organisations throughout the country to share tactics, experiences and join forces in national actions in the struggle for ESCR. This shows that parallel reporting is not only an instrument of monitoring and advocacy, but even more a long term process of civil society mobilisation and capacity building.
4. What was the impact of the Strategy?
The CESCR used the official Brazilian report (2001), but also Plataforma DhESC‘s Civil Society Report (2000) and Parallel Report (2003), in its meeting with the Brazilian government representatives and in writing its Concluding Observations and Recommendations in May 2003. The Committee drew heavily on the Civil Society reports. Ultimately, it highlighted two aspects that limit implementation of economic, social and cultural rights in Brazil: (1) the extreme social inequity and injustice, and (2) the economic recession associated to certain aspects of structural adjustment programs and of liberal economic policies. The Committee strongly recommended that the government take immediate corrective action to redress these problems. The first impact then is that through the actions of Plataforma DhESCA, the Brazilian government was and is being openly held accountable for its actions on the improvement of the situation of ESCR.
The impact of the parallel report however is not only limited to accountability: there were many lessons for the organisations involved. As an unprecedented process, the organisations in Plataforma DhESC needed to develop significant knowledge on economic social and cultural rights, and the operation of international instruments and mechanisms for the first time. This increased the capacity of the organisations and empowered them to make use of legal frameworks in both quasi-legal and non-legal settings. They also developed the ability and proved adept at applying the legal framework to the practical realities in Brazil, linking concept and practice.
Social monitoring of State actions in public policies was a significant experience for Brazilian civil society organisations. Especially in the case of ESCR, civil society organisations learned to incorporate new methodologies in strategies that had been used before, and even more to create new strategies and systems for monitoring. In short, during the parallel reporting process, there was an increase in monitoring capacity amongst the civil society groups involved.
One of the greatest achievements of this process still was the participation of a huge number of civil society organisations of very different composition, thematic focus and mission. This process, especially during the Public Hearings in which over two thousand organisations participated, showed the significant capacity to integrate interests, show unity and commitment, and to acknowledge the importance of direct participation of civil society representatives. Not only to legitimise the process, but also to incorporate different objectives, approaches and proposals.
To conclude: Brazilian civil society has gained strength, knowledge and tools in the struggle for ESCR since the monitoring process started. This process is still running: in 2006 a new Parallel Report was presented to the CESCR. More organisations continue to become involved in the monitoring process, and the system of parallel reporting on ESCR in Brazil keeps developing itself as a tool for empowerment.
5. Resources and links
The information for this Tactic was drawn from the document: Monitoring Commitments to ESChR – Process Brief Memory, written by Paulo César Carbonari, Secretary General of Plataforma DhESCA Brazil from 2000 until 2006.
Read the full document >>
For more information about current procedures of Plataforma DhESCA and allied networks, visit the following websites:
Movimento Nacional de Direitos Humanos
Plataforma DhESC
Processo de Articulaçao e Diálogo
For more information about the United Nations treaty monitoring bodies and other examples of parallel reports, visit the following websites:
OHCHR - full information on all the treaty bodies, their functioning, the process of state reporting and documentation submitted for state reports, their concluding recommendations and parallel reports submitted by civil society.
European Centre for Minority Issues has created a database on NGO parallel reports. It provides rather an article-by-article presentation, much in the way the governmental materials have been organized, to show NGO views set against the positions represented by governments.
