Socio - Economic Development in the Opt
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CHAPTER Three Socio - Economic Development in the oPt Section One: Demographic Condition and Analysis of Educational Rights Protection in the oPt Prepared By: Poppy Hardee, Flora Qassis Section Two: Health Sector in the oPt Prepared By: Enas Bannourah Section Three: Palestinian economy – Main Indicators Prepared By: Abeer Khair, Maria Jose Vega, Fahed Abu Saymeh Section Four: Energy Sector in the oPt Prepared By: Nadine Sahouri Status of Environment in the occupied Palestinian territory, 2011 A Human Rights – Based Approach Chapter Three: Socio-Economic Development in the oPt 3.1. Demographic Conditions and an analysis of educational rights protection in the oPt 3.1.1 Demographic Conditions in the oPt 1.1. Introduction: Demographic conditions have a huge impact on the protection of basic and fundamental human rights. Demographic information informs one of the condition of lifestyle that a population enjoys (life expectancy, population density, % of displaced persons etc); these being either directly or indirectly related to human rights enforcement and protection. In the case of demography however, one must be careful when attempting to determine whether it is a cause or effect of human rights' abuses. In order to locate the source or causal determinant of human rights' restrictions, one must ascertain whether demographic conditions in and of themselves cause a restriction to human rights or whether some other factor(s) restrict human rights, thus causing demographics appear as though they are the restrictors (Shuttleworth, 2008). This may not however be an accurate nor clear cut way of understanding how rights‘ abuses are created. Understanding demographics as a causal factor in human rights' abuses or understanding how rights‘ issues relate to demographic conditions and change is difficult. Mainly this is because it is natural as human rights' researchers to assign blame or responsibility to the cause(s) or causers of rights‘ violations and consider them to be a result of human driven/societal action. This is difficult in the case of demography as conditions may be seen to be naturally determined i.e. a result of natural environmental conditions (Reed, 2002). However, it is now understood that environmental factors are very rarely ‗natural‘ in an ‗uncaused‘ and ‗uncontrolled‘ sense; thus one must look at which institutions, political actors or international/global powers that have caused them to be as they are. Cause and effect are closely linked here. For example, environmental conditions may create a drought which affects the demographics of a certain population and results in rights' violations i.e. denial of right to life, restriction on freedom of movement or the denial of the right to development. In this case however is it fair to say the environment caused a failure in rights protections? In this era of advanced technology and global environmental planning, it is more likely that the national and international institutions that failed to prevent, or respond to drought would be considered the cause of the demographic changes of the drought and thus the cause of human rights' violations (Paterson, 1996). Therefore, it may be helpful to consider demographics in terms of an effect of the human rights' violations of governments and other decision makers which have effected them to be in a certain way. In the case of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), population may be particularly dense in one area, or life expectancy may be lower than the world average, but it is unlikely that this is due to naturally occurring phenomena. Rather this will be a result of political decision making and regional/ global effects i.e. Israeli occupation, the recent global financial crises, regional conflict etc. 133 Status of Environment in the occupied Palestinian territory, 2011 A Human Rights – Based Approach ‗Demography is the study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human populations.‘ (Oxford Dictionary, 2008). Demographics include the statistical analysis of state, regional and world data on: Population Age Gender Birth rate Death rate Migration rate 1.2. International Human Rights Related to Demographics. Below is a list of international and national rights laws/protocols that are related to demographic indicators in a number of ways: Universal Declaration of Human Rights‟ (UDHR): Article 13: (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 15: (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. Article 17: (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. Article 25: (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well- being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. 134 Status of Environment in the occupied Palestinian territory, 2011 A Human Rights – Based Approach Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW): Article 9: 1. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or force upon her the nationality of the husband. 2. States Parties shall grant women equal rights with men with respect to the nationality of their children. Article 16: 1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women. 2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning. Article 13: (Summarized) Give women equal rights to conclude contracts and to administer property Right to Development: Development is linked to demography in a number of interesting ways. For example, the better development is the greater human life chances and living conditions will be, which is reflected in demographic statistics. For example, the better the state of human development, the higher life chances will be which is shown in a number of positive ways, e.g. infant mortality will be lower, there will be fewer displaced people within a state‘s boarders and women rights will be better protected and implemented. There has been a resurgence of interest in development as a human and social right (Andreassen and Marks, 2010); however the right to development was enshrined in United Nations (UN) treaties many years ago: For example, in 1981 in Article 22 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights asserts: Article 22(1): "All peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity and in the equal enjoyment of the common heritage of mankind." The right to development was subsequently proclaimed by the UN in 1986 in the "Declaration on the Right to Development," which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly resolution 41/128. 135 Status of Environment in the occupied Palestinian territory, 2011 A Human Rights – Based Approach The right to development asserts that humans have the right to enjoy and contribute to the sustainable development of their states/regions and enjoy similar lifestyle qualities with other humans (i.e. remove the disparity in life chances and life quality between peoples and nations). From demographic indicators, one can judge how well this right is being protected on the basis of the information they provide about lifestyle quality and human development (particularly in comparison with other regions). Millennium Development Goals (MDG): Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) provide concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions. Those relating to demography, include: MDG 3: Promote gender equality and empower women. MDG 4: Reduce child mortality MDG 7: Ensure environmental sustainability 1.3. The oPt‟s Adoption of International Rights‟ norms: The oPt has neither signed nor ratified any of the aforementioned rights conventions and is thus not legally bound by their terms. It is noted here that the oPt has not refused to sign these conventions in opposition to the principles they adhere to, but rather, ‗the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) is not entitled to accede to the UN Conventions on human rights‘ (UNDP, 2008). This is because as an ‗occupied‘ region, the Palestinian territory is not afforded a globally recognized statehood and is thus unlikely to be invited to sign such conventions until it is given such status. However, although not recognized by the UN as a state, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1974 was given formal recognition by all Arab States as the main body responsible for the representation of the Palestinian people, and at this same time, the PLO was afforded ‗observer‘ status by the UN (A/RES/3237 (XXIX)). Therefore, although the oPt has not signed nor ratified any major international rights conventions/protocols, (with the exception of the Arab Right Charter (ARC) and the Cairo Declarations Human Rights (CDHR) it has been an observer to many of them22.