Asia Pacific Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (AP RCEM) Statement
UN HLPF’s Ministerial Declaration fails to reflect the aspirations of the global south in times of crises
APA is coordinator of the Thematic Working Group on Gender, Sexuality and SRHR at the AP RCEM.
We, 610 civil society organisations from 17 constituencies and 38 countries across Asia and the Pacific, express our disappointment over the recently adopted Ministerial Declaration at HLPF 2021 despite the demand for a stronger outcome in the times of crises. The failure of adoption last year, overshadowed the negotiations for the declaration supposed to set the roadmap for resilient COVID 19 recovery and sustainable development. The prioritization of consensus ahead of critical considerations has resulted in a diluted resolution lacking transformative actions. This could not only amplify COVID 19 crises due to pre-existing systemic vulnerabilities but will also worsen perpetual inequalities and injustices for the majority of the peoples of the Global South, especially the most marginalized.
We believe that COVID 19 should serve as our wake up call to strategise fundamental structural reforms backed by strong multilateral resolve, definitive political will and robust accountability measures to deliver on the transformative ambition of the Agenda 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic and its consequential crisis is glaring evidence of how the current global economic, political and socio-cultural governance and systems have failed to deliver human rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons, especially the most vulnerable and marginalised.
We feel that our previous concerns on the Declaration remain and the Ministerial Declaration further derogates the emphasis on some of the most critical issues central to a rights-based human development approach in the decade of action and delivery for sustainable development. The declaration reaffirms past commitments in most cases, sustaining business as usual, without emphasizing much required transformative actions. Despite the adoption of the ministerial declaration, fundamental issues critical for developing countries, LDC, LLDCs and SIDS countries remain diluted. This includes the issue of climate related CBDR RC commitments, gender equality, human rights, rights to special determination for people under colonial and foreign occupation, migrants and refugees, as well as other systemic issues such as financing and means of implementation.
Ministerial Declaration 2021 has failed to reflect the following demands of peoples of the Global South to recover from COVID-19 pandemic:
Climate financing that works for countries of the global south
We are disappointed on Russian Federation’s attempt to amend the text in para 20 on climate recovery, weakening the focus on tackling the climate crisis. Although governments have voted against the proposal, the ministerial declaration could not propose concrete steps for removing barriers to climate justice.
The Ministerial Declaration only reiterates the existing commitment from the Paris Agreement, without much substance on concrete actions and financial commitment for mitigation and adaptation measures. Despite the recognition of the principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) in The 2030 Agenda, CBDR is repeatedly challenged by the developed countries during the negotiations, referred to as “a sticky issue that pushes us further from consensus”. Despite a reference to Common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, the declaration does not push the developed countries to deliver on their commitments based on their historical responsibilities or propose adequate accountability mechanisms to address such failures.
We demand that developed countries must fulfil their obligations to deliver new, additional and predictable climate finance needed for developing countries, as stipulated in the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. Mobilisation of finance from the private sector means a failure of the developed countries to fulfil their financial obligations and will only delay the real climate actions. Covid-19 pandemic must not be used as an excuse for not delivering the climate finances. We demand that finance for loss and damage due to adverse impacts of climate change must be addressed, compensated for and provided through transformative policy actions like retrospective taxation on fossil fuels and extractive industries, among others .
We would like to reiterate that MD should make a reference to real zero emission instead of net zero. The current proposed net-zero pledges are not grounded in deep decarbonisation, and instead, rely on nature-based solutions (NbS) as sinks, to sequester the carbon emissions; as well as rely on carbon-markets to deliver carbon offsets mainly in developing countries. The ‘net zero’ promoted by governments and corporations is an attempt to escape from their historical and current responsibilities to address climate change or to repair the loss and damage they have caused to the ecosystems and the frontline communities. This would allow them to continue to pollute as usual, even increase their emissions under the pretence of compensating for it through a number of false solutions including carbon capture and storage (CCS), and geoengineering, among others.
Governments must address adaptation beyond its integration into national plans and policies. Only having adaptation plans or climate policies addressing adaptation needs are not enough as adaptation is site specific; communities have to be meaningfully engaged in the adaptation plans and policies. Support in terms of finance and technologies must be provided to those initiated by communities.
Gender Equality and Human Rights are fundamental
Agenda 2030 will only be achieved with the full realization of the human rights of women and girls in all their diversity The attempt of the Russia Federation to remove the reference on human rights of all women and girls, as well as sexual and gender based violence is unacceptable.
While we appreciate the issues raised in the Ministerial declaration under para 25, we believe the commitments under gender equality need to be strengthened. The unpaid care and equal pay not only needs to be recognised, but States need to redistribute and reduce the existing deepening gender poverty gaps exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. The Ministerial Declaration should have clearly articulated some of the examples of sexual and gender-based violence as well as harmful practices that evidently escalates during the pandemic, such as early, forced and child marriage, FGM, domestic violences, digital harassment and abuse for women of all ages, etc.
The para has also overlooked other essential issues such as: 1) Sexual and reproductive health and rights - especially considering how women’s choice and decision to exercise their sexual and reproductive health rights has been compromised resulting in an increase in maternal mortality rate and inability to access information and services including family planning and safe abortion services. 2) Girls’ education, with the ongoing pandemic, many young girls will not return back, dropping out of school and digitalization of education widening the education gender parity, 4) addressing roots systemic causes of gender inequality - While the declaration stated the urgency to ensure women’s equal access to, and control over, land and natural resources, but without tackling the systemic problem of the extractive model of development that comes with massive land and resource grabbing, women will forever demand an equal share of a shrinking pie. Similarly, only with dismantling patriarchy embedded in social, political and cultural norms then the leadership and full, effective and equal participation of women in decision-making articulated in the Ministerial Declaration can be achieved.
We appreciate the fact that the Agenda 2030 is grounded in UDHR and International Human Rights Treaties (Para 30). However, we also observe that there is an increasing abyss between the principles of the Agenda and its implementation. Unless the implementation of the Agenda is founded on a human rights and justice based approach, leaving no one behind will remain an unachievable goal. Shrinking space for democratic dissent, increased militarization and unduly repressive measures for muting dissension, violence in general and against women and LGBTIQ as political tool, marginalization of the communities already facing multiple marginalizations including human rights and environmental defenders, IPs, women, elderly, LGBTIQ, people living with HIV, and people discriminated against on the basis of work and descent are some of our major concerns (in addition to what MD also mentions) which must be addressed in order to achieve the SDGs for all people everywhere.
Foreign Occupation, Colonialism and Conflict
We appreciate the declaration’s emphasis on the right to self-determination of peoples living under colonial and foreign occupation, and reiterate our recommendation to effectively mobilize multilateral support to address issues of foreign occupation, colonialism, militarism and conflict to protect fundamental freedoms of the people. We condemn the Israeli attempt to remove the reference to “colonial and foreign occupation” in para 29 as well as the United States,Canada and Australia’s support for such a move. We also condemn the disquieting silence of several countries exercising abstention on the issue despite its unilateral, hegemonic and human rights-abusive tonation. We are also concerned about the failure of the declaration to mobilize substantive multilateral action in condemning the regime in Myanmar through sanctions and other necessary measures, as well as the continued sale of weapons to the regime that brutalizes its own innocent people. The declaration should also pronounce the subtle aspects of prevalent coloniality across socio-cultural, economic and political structures perpetuating injustices for and in the global south through concentration of wealth, power and resources in the global north, integration of developing economies into global capitalism, development models advancing geopolitical and geostrategic interests, manipulative legal structures and sets of rules at the international level, impunity on unilateral coercive measures, hegemonized multilateral processes like UNSC, among others, and marginalizing governance within countries. We would like to emphasize the redress of prevalent coloniality and foreign occupation with their manifestations responsible for the rise of violence, insecurity and injustices.
Migrants and Refugees
Around 260 million migrants and 80 million people including refugees and internally displaced persons, largely living in developing countries, are amongst the most vulnerable social groups taking the worst impact of the crisis. Most of them live in poor conditions where access to health and basic services, social protection and security and much required physical distancing is an impossible luxury. Most of such deprivations and marginalities go unnoticed due to undocumented aspects prefereably unheard or deliberately ignored by unjust immigration rules and lopsided labor laws. The pandemic not only affected them but also more than 800 million families dependent on them. We welcome the Ministerial Declaration’s focus on them as well as the call for reducing remittance charges. However, we request the member states to ensure migrants and refugees’ equal access to basic services, health, treatment and diagnostics, social security and psycho-social support, and their full inclusion in national responses towards resilient recovery. We call upon the member states to ensure that migrants and refugees are not left behind in vaccination roll outs, and that they are not pushed into mandatory or coercive vaccination. We also emphasize the need to ensure that COVID 19 pandemic does not result in unfair border restrictions and heightened criminalisation of undocumented migrants, and lack of vaccine does not create impediment in the mobility of migrants and workers, in addition to ensuring rights-based guidelines of the Global compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular migration, the Global Compact for Refugees and targets of the SDGs.
Systemic Issues
The failure of the Ministerial Declaration to pronounce the redress of systemic issues is a critical concern that could have a consequential effect on the 2030 Agenda. COVID 19 has exposed how such issues have converted it into multidimensional crises amplifying perpetual marginality in the global south. APRCEM echos the need for adequate and urgent redress of the following:
- ODA: The declaration’s emphasis to enhance the fulfilment of ODA commitments of 0.7 per cent of GNI and 0.15 and 0.20 for the least developed countries is appreciated. However, in the backdrop of more than half the countries having failed on their ODA commitments of even 0.7 percent of GNI requires stronger language on multilateral resolve and accountability measures on ODA as the developing countries face a financing shortfall of over $2.5 trillion per year in core SDGs priority areas. The declaration is also quiet on the use of ODA to catalyze private sector engagement, achieve trade, military and political objectives of donor countries, and ODA’s substitution with climate financing, refugee costs or debt relief as recently proposed by the Global North dominated Development Assistance Committee - against the transformative ambitions of the 2030 Agenda.
- Debt: The declaration’s emphasis on Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) and the reference to implement the Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond DSSI is appreciated. However, its precarious silence on the business as usual pattern is deeply concerning as almost 96% of the support by Multilateral Banks and International Financing Institutions to Asian Pacific countries in 2020 are loans, with meager amounts in grants or debt relief, despite the fact that 40 out of 43 countries in Asia-Pacific are facing an unprecedented increase in the debt to GDP ratio as a consequence of COVID . The declaration also does not pronounce the cancelation of sovereign debt payments vis a vis rejection of financing schemes that increase debt distress.
- Trade: The declaration repeatedly emphasizes the advancement of global trade under WTO rules but clearly fails to recognize the hegemonic nature of such trade rules enabling the continued flow of wealth and resources from developing countries through illicit financial flows, tax evasions, capital flows, asset stealth, trade mispricing, and profit shifting by multinational corporations, with a detrimental effect on fiscal space in the Global South for COVID 19 recovery or SDGs fulfilment. The declaration is oblivious to clear data showing that the developing and emerging economies lost over $7.8 trillion in illicit financial flows alone between 2004-2013, with the outflows increasing at 6.5% every year - twice as fast as global GDP. The declaration has diluted the demand for TRIPS waiver, replaced with “using TRIPS Flexibilities if necessary”. COVID 19’s horrific implications should make it necessary enough to ensure dissemination of knowledge, technology and resources for universal equitable access to vaccines prioritizing the least developed and the most marginalized. The declaration does not clearly articulate the suspension of all such patents and lift trade rules/barriers that impede access to medicines and medical technologies to enable governmental capacities to handle the crisis.
