A government’s budget is about
people’s human rights…
The national government in Country F directs
funds annually to state governments for the
establishment and maintenance of a system of
emergency food supplies.
The local authorities in one state, River State,
pocket most of the funds, with the result that
emergency food supplies are inadequate when a
drought hits the state and people go hungry.
Or…
People in the rural areas of Blossom County in
Country C have to walk, on average, 15 miles to
the nearest health clinic; no public
transportation is available. As a result, a number
of people, including pregnant women, die
annually from a lack of medical care.
Over the course of several years, the
government has claimed it has no resources to
build additional clinics, but during that time the
army’s budget has increased by 25%, even
though there was no war going on.
Or…
The government has privatized water services
in country D. It has established a National
Water Commission whose mandate is to
oversee water contracts, to ensure that
services are being provided efficiently and that
all citizens of country D have access to clean
water.
While the government lays out the process for
the selection and work of the Commission, it
fails to allocate funds for its operation.
Using budget work to realize
the right to education
Photo: Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ),
Buenos Aires, Argentina
National and international
human rights guarantees
National and municipal
 Argentine Constitution guarantees equality and the right to
education
 Constitution of City of Buenos Aires guarantees equality and
access to early education for children from 45 days to 5 years
International
 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
guarantees equality and the right to education
 Right to education means
- classrooms will be available in sufficient quantity
- classrooms will be of acceptable quality
(General Comment 13 of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights)
Budget analysis as a tool
to assist human rights work
 Helps assess the congruence of budget revenue,
allocations and expenditures with the government’s
human rights obligations
 Enables groups to make targeted recommendations
to the government
 Helps “cost out” implications of policy choices
intended to advance human rights
 Helps identify sources of (new or reprioritized)
funding to pay for HR policy choices
Challenges in taking on
human rights budget work
Internal to the organization or coalition
 Knowing human rights standards and what they
mean
 Understanding how to read and analyze a
government’s budget
 “Translating” human rights concepts into budget
concepts—and vice versa
External to an organization or coalition
 Gaining access to government information and the
inadequacy of information
 Enabling communities to understand budgets, their
meaning, and how to influence them.
Not all budget work is
number crunching…
To see how communities can get involved in
monitoring budgets:
MKSS, The Right to Information and Corruption
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3238128636848285898#
For more information on
human rights budget work:
http://www.humanrightsbudgetwork.org/