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	Civil Society call for a Global Fund for Social Protection to respond to the COVID-19 by Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors   June 2021   Global fund for social protection: international solidarity in the service of poverty eradication - Report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter.   On Saturday, June 19th, the International Labour Conference, the highest body within the International Labour Organisation (ILO), voted to call on the ILO to develop concrete proposals for establishing a Global Fund for Social Protection. It’s a historic breakthrough for 55 per cent of the world's population – 4 billion people – who are still deprived of any form of social protection.   On June 29th, I will present my new report “Global fund for social protection: international solidarity in the service of poverty eradication” to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which takes stock of the efforts to achieve a consensus on the need to establish a new international financing mechanism in support of the universalisation of social protection floors.   Along with many others, from trade unions to governments, and from financial institutions to civil society groups, I am convinced that universal social protection is a necessary collective response to face upcoming crises.   Even before the onset of the pandemic, more than half of the world's population was without any form of social protection whatsoever, and only 29 per cent were protected throughout their lives.   With the establishment of the Global fund for social protection, a virtuous cycle can emerge in which international support provides an incentive for low-income countries to invest more in social protection, leading in turn to more inclusive growth and more resilient economies. Over time, this will allow for the increased mobilization of domestic resources.   Establishing such a Global Fund is not a dream – it is doable, and it is affordable. Less than half of the $161.2 billion provided by the OECD countries in official development assistance would be enough to close the financing gap for basic social protection in low income countries.   At the Human Rights Council I will call on the world’s governments to mobilise behind the Global fund for social protection in the name of sustainable development, health, education, and justice. The current crisis should serve as a trigger to establish solidarity mechanisms helping to move to universal social protection.   * Access the report: http://undocs.org/A/HRC/47/36   # All over the world, people and organisations are struggling to defend their social rights. We are gathering their testimonies to make them visible and strengthen solidarity: http://www.srpoverty.org/category/videos-for-social-protection/   July 2020   Civil Society call for a Global Fund for Social Protection to respond to the COVID-19, report from the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors   In view of the global harm from the COVID-19 pandemic, with food insecurity, poverty and loss of livelihoods rising globally, it is essential that national social protection floors are made available to all people – through nation and international solidarity.   While recognising that the foremost responsibility for social protection lies at country level, the pandemic puts a spotlight on the need for international solidarity. What is needed is the creation of a solidarity based Global Fund for Social Protection to support countries design, implement and, in specific cases, finance national floors of social protection. It is the adequate multilateral initiative needed to respond to Covid-19 and to build a better future.   Civil Society Call for a Global Fund for Social Protection to respond to the COVID-19 crisis and to build a better future   We, civil society and faith-based organizations, trade unions and members of the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, in view of the global harm from the COVID-19 pandemic, call on governments worldwide to ensure – through national and global solidarity – that national social protection floors are made available to all people with the help of a Global Fund for Social Protection. National floors of social protection are vital to leave no one behind. They ensure universal access to essential health care as well as basic income security across the life course.   We recall that:   The member states of the United Nations have long agreed on the fundamental human rights of all people to social protection and to health; Despite this, more than two thirds of the world’s population are still denied the right to comprehensive social protection;   As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people without protection is increasing significantly, with the number of people that are food insecure alone projected to double to a quarter of a billion this year;   Social protection systems are a proven direct and fast-acting mechanism that reduce and prevent poverty, help counter inequality, and can unleash the creativity and productive capacity of people by providing a basic level of security that ensures dignity and access to all essential goods and public services;   Social protection is a vital investment in socio-economic development and in resilience in view of natural and climate disasters, economic and other humanitarian crises;   Social protection systems offer highly effective safeguards against the social and economic fallout of the present and future health and socio-economic crises; and many studies have shown that ensuring a basic level of social protection for all is affordable for most countries and entirely achievable through the solidarity of the international community.   We recognize, that:   Many national governments develop, implement and monitor social protection floors, with the participation of civil society, trade unions and informal worker organizations;   Generally and principally the financing of social protection systems must fall to national budgets;   There are, nevertheless, a few countries where technical support for the setting-up of national social protection floors and co-financing from the international community are required due to multiple factors, including high socio-economic vulnerability and persistent low levels of national revenue;   Based on conditions in the pre-COVID-19 era, some 10 to 15 countries have social protection financing gaps amounting to more than 10 per cent of their GDP, and require temporary international co-financing of minimum social protection floors, while they strengthen domestic resource mobilisation.   We call on all governments:   To create a Global Fund for Social Protection, based on the principle of global solidarity, to support countries to design, implement and, in specific cases, provide temporary co-financing for national social protection floors. The mandate of the Fund would be to:   Support the introduction or finalization of national social protection floors with the full participation of people of all ages, including women, people with disabilities, minorities, and those living in poverty in their design, implementation and monitoring;   Ensure that national social protection floors are prepared for sustainability and for expansion in the event of shocks that affect entire communities;   Co-finance – on a transitional basis – the costs of setting up social protection floors in low-income countries where such transfers would otherwise require a prohibitively high share of the country’s total tax revenue;   Support the strengthening of domestic resource mobilisation, including international tax regulation, to underpin the future sustainability of national social protection systems;   Offer additional support for specific shock-responsive social protection interventions in countries where floors have not yet been established.   We envisage, that The Global Fund for Social Protection would:   Be governed by a board, representative of both recipient and donor states, civil society organizations, trade unions and informal workers organisations in accordance with the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (2005) and ILO Recommendation R204 (2015);   Be governed by the principles of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Co-operation, notably the respect for country ownership, national financial co-responsibility and the necessary support for national systems;   Operate under the principles of accountability, transparency and participation; Be financed through a combination of different sources such as:   Representing a greater focus of existing international development aid resources and development finance facilities;   Specifically earmarked sources, such as national, regional or global financial transaction taxes (FTT), an arms trade tax, carbon taxes, air ticket solidarity levies, and levies on profits;   Increased development aid, multilateral grants and funds for emergency response; Voluntary contributions of individuals and other donors.   UN organizations and development and humanitarian aid organizations, including civil society active in the countries of focus will deliver technical country support.   We therefore call on all governments:   To establish a Global Fund for Social Protection that will help bring an end to avoidable human suffering, poverty, extreme inequality, ill-health and avoidable deaths associated with the current and future crises, and for them to invest in the development of national social protection floors in all countries through the principle of national and global solidarity.   http://bit.ly/31iplLt http://www.socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org/2020/07/civil-society-call-for-a-global-fund-for-social-protection/ Visit the related web page
	Doctor Denis Mukwege's 20-year stand against sexual violence by Euronews, OHCHR, Mukwege Foundation, agencies Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)   Denis Mukwege's 20-year stand against sexual violence in DRC, interviewed by Isabel Marques da Silva for Euronews.   Dr Denis Mukwege is a gynaecologist who has spent more than 20 years helping victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.   His work as a doctor and human rights activist was recognised with the Sakharov Prize in 2014 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018. His work has sometimes led him to receiving threats.   I spoke to him from the Democratic Republic of Congo and began by asking him what impact the Covid-19 pandemic had had on the work of the Bukavu-based Panzi Hospital and the Panzi Foundation in providing medical and social services to women victim of sexual violence.   Dr. Mukwege began by outlining the work of the hospital to set his answer in context:   "The hospital does not only provide medical treatment to victims of sexual violence, but also what we call holistic care, which consists of four pillars: a medical pillar, a psychological pillar, a legal pillar and a socio-economic pillar.   "And it is this last pillar that has suffered greatly during the Covid-19 pandemic, as there was a slowdown in economic activity.   "So all those women who were living with limited resources in terms of their income-generating activities, today we see them coming back to ask us for new support to be able to restart their businesses.   "When women are not economically self-supporting, when they're very poor, they also become more vulnerable to sexual violence."   I asked him if this had meant any changes in the cases that had been arriving at the hospital:   "In the hospital, we observed an increase in the number of rapes of children. And maybe this can be explained by the fact that the children do not go to school at the moment. The parents are more concerned with finding ways to look after and feed them, that the children are left to themselves and they are more exposed to rape. "It is true that the number of children treated during this period of the pandemic has been higher than usual."   I asked him why he advocated the creation of an international tribunal to deal with the impunity of rape being used as a weapon of war:   "There were hundreds of women who were raped in one night, there were systematic rapes. We saw children, babies, old people, even men who were raped.   "Today the perpetrators of these crimes are known - and yet they go unpunished. These perpetrators are nationals as well as foreigners because, at this time that I am speaking to you, there are foreign armed groups that continue to commit crimes in the DRC."We have tried everything, we have tried force, we have tried negotiation, we have tried peace agreements, but it hasn't worked.   "I believe that the only element that has not been used is justice. An international court for the Congo can deal with the "big fish", but we also need to have mixed specialist chambers throughout the Republic."   "And the objective for us is that not only do the public need to know the truth, they also need to be able to say 'never again'."   A year ago, Dr Mukwege created a Global Survivors Fund to assist reparation projects for survivors of sexual violence. I asked him how it operated:   "For the care of victims of sexual violence, especially in the medical and psychosocial field, we have the continuous support of the European Union. And the objective of the Global Fund is to support reparation projects in the countries, because we believe that if women have the courage to go to court, to be able to file a complaint, they should not be discouraged because afterwards no reparation has been made.   "I believe that, if women have already had the courage to overcome their suffering and to file a complaint, it is our duty and the duty of humanity to help them to go all the way.   "And to go all the way is to help them heal. This healing cannot take place without justice and reparation."   I asked Dr Mukwege what the priorities for action in countries most affected by conflict and humanitarian crises such as Congo should be, as the European Union and the African Union intend to launch a new partnership in 2021.   "Development cooperation on issues of common political interest between Europe and Africa, broader cooperation on migration issues, climate change, peace and security are important objectives.   "I believe that the biggest problem today is implementation; it’s the implementation strategy that suffers. "If we don't work for peace and security in Africa, what happens? Young people do not have hope, young people tend to take the path of migration with all the consequences - which for Africa is the loss of brainpower, which is not a good thing. "But between the two there is all that happens in the Mediterranean Sea where dozens of young Africans die, which is not humanity’s finest moment.   I asked him what he hoped his work would continue to bring:   "We hope to be able to continue to do our work of supporting accompanying women, but in the future we need to eliminate rape.   "For us, putting an end to this violence against women would be the pinnacle of our work, since we hope to see one day Congolese women being able to go out to farm, to fetch water or firewood and to return without fear of being raped. http://bit.ly/3ywX96n   http://www.mukwegefoundation.org/the-global-survivors-fund/ http://www.mukwegefoundation.org/connect-survivors-in-a-movement/ http://www.msf.org/thousands-survivors-sexual-violence-need-physical-and-psychological-care-drc   Sep. 2020   UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has expressed deep concern over the recent death threats directed at the Congolese human rights defender and Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege, and called for swift action to investigate who is behind the threats and bring them to justice.   Dr. Mukwege, who founded and runs the Panzi hospital in Bukavu, has won international recognition, including the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, for his decades of work helping thousands of women victims of sexual and gender-based violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He has also been a determined advocate against the use of rape as a weapon of war, and for increased protection of women.   He has also been a strong and consistent voice calling for those responsible for sexual violence to be brought to justice. He was a staunch supporter of the 2010 ‘Mapping Report’ by the UN Human Rights Office which chronicled hundreds of serious human rights violations and abuses that occurred in the eastern DRC between 1993 and 2003, in many cases identifying the groups and entities believed to be responsible for perpetrating the crimes.   He has received deaths threats in the past and survived a major assassination attempt in October 2012. The recent alarming surge of threats against Dr Mukwege, which have been conveyed via social media and in direct phone calls to him and his family, followed his condemnation of the continued killing of civilians in eastern DRC and his renewed calls for accountability for human rights violations and abuses.   “Dr. Mukwege is a true hero – determined, courageous and extremely effective,” said Bachelet. “For years, he helped thousands of gravely injured and traumatized women when there was nobody else to take care of them, and at the same time he did a great deal to publicize their plight and stimulate others to try to grapple with the uncontrolled epidemic of sexual violence in the eastern DRC.”   “His life seems to be at serious risk,” the High Commissioner said. “I welcome the public commitment of President Tshisekedi to ensure his security, and I hope that Denis Mukwege and his team will be provided with comprehensive protection by the Congolese authorities so that the indispensable work they perform day in, day out, at Panzi hospital can be guaranteed.”   She also called for an effective, prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the threats made against him. “It is essential those responsible are brought to justice and that the truth is known, both as a means to protect Dr. Muwege’s life, but also as a deterrent to others who attack, threaten or intimidate medical workers and human rights defenders who, like him, work for the benefit of the Congolese people, often in exceptionally difficult circumstances,” she added.   The UN Human Rights Chief underscored the need for all relevant authorities to openly condemn the threats. And, in order to tackle the problem in the longer term, she urged the Congolese authorities to adopt the draft law on the protection and regulation of the activity of human rights defenders in a form that is fully consistent with international standards.   She also called on the authorities to reinforce their efforts to prevent further human rights violations and abuses in eastern DRC and to take concrete steps to establish transitional justice processes that grant thousands of victims of successive conflicts their right to justice, truth, and reparations. http://bit.ly/32hFKkM   http://www.passblue.com/2020/09/09/after-resisting-the-un-redeploys-peacekeepers-to-protect-dr-mukwege-amid-death-threats/ http://www.mukwegefoundation.org/monusco-peacekeepers-return-to-panzi-hospital-amid-threats-against-dr-denis-mukwege/ Visit the related web page
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