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
 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).
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 - Brazilian public budget is financed by the poor people and appropriated by
the wealthy due to a regressive taxation 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.
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
on
national
and
international human rights, environmental,
social and economic networks and have
developed budget monitoring projects in
Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Central
America and Netherlands.
BUDGET AND RIGHTS
A budget analysis method from the
perspective of human rights.
PUBLIC BUDGET AND HUMAN RIGHTS
AN APPROACH
Public Budget analysis is an entry
point for discussing:
 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.
HUMAN RIGHTS REALIZATION
International Treaties
Ferderal Constitution
ABSTRACT
Law
Public Policy
Budget
CONCRET
METHODOLOGY OF PUBLIC
BUDGET ANALYSIS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE
OF 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.
PUBLIC BUDGET AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The State
should:
 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) .
KEY QUESTIONS
How public policies are
financed? In other
words, who is financing
the taxes collected by
State? The poorest?
The richest?
How transparent is
the budget for the
public?
To what degree are
government programs
and actions actually
implementing rights
and combating
inequalities?
Who has taken
benefits from the
resources produced
by the society?
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.
ELABORATION
EVALUATION
AND
CONTROL
DISCUSSION
AND
APPROVAL
EXECUTION
INESC
Institute for Socioeconomic Studies
Working with
Human Rights and
Budget in Public
Schools
ONDA (WAVE)
ADOLESCENTES FIGHTING
FOR THEIR RIGHTS
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.
ONDA (WAVE)
ADOLESCENTES FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS
At least 500 teenagers from
ten public schools in the
Federal District have
participated in this project.
ONDA (WAVE)
ADOLESCENTES FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS
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.
ONDA (WAVE)
ADOLESCENTES FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS
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).
ONDA (WAVE)
ADOLESCENTES FIGHTING FOR THEIR RIGHTS
The teenagers also produced a magazine that deals with human
rights issues related to budget. Due to its success, this project
was awarded a Social Technology Prize by the Bank of Brazil
Foundation .
Thank you!
Iara Pietricovsky de Oliveira
INESC´s Co-Director
www.inesc.org.br
iarap@inesc.org.br