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	Auditing Economic Policy for Human Rights by Radhika Balakrishnan, Diane Elson, James Heintz Center for Women's Global Leadership, Carter Center   Auditing Economic Policy for Human Rights: A guide for activists and advocates, by Radhika Balakrishnan, Diane Elson, James Heintz and Jonah Walters from the Center for Women's Global Leadership.   Macroeconomic policy affects all of us, no matter how removed our lives seem to be from the heights of the policy-making elite. Macroeconomics is the branch of economics that studies the behavior and performance of an economy as a whole. It focuses on the aggregate changes in the economy such as unemployment, rate of growth of Gross Domestic Product and inflation.   The prices of the goods we buy, the wages we earn at work, the working conditions we endure, the level of unpaid work we perform, the quality of the public services, including medical care, we access, even how long we live—all these things, to a certain extent, are shaped by macroeconomic policy.   Understanding and intervening in macroeconomic policy, then, is a key priority for activists concerned with building a more just and equitable world. The realization of rights is fundamentally a political struggle for a different social and economic order.   The prevailing dominant methodology for evaluating macroeconomic policy is deeply flawed. This methodology is drawn from neoclassical economics—the intellectual basis for neoliberal policy—and is concerned, first and foremost, with questions of effi-ciency and market competition.   But this framework is severely limited when it comes to understanding the effects of economic inequality on social wellbeing. According to traditional neoclassical logic, competitive markets are the best tool for guiding social outcomes, because they are supposedly efficient, whereas the actions of governments are typically presumed to entail the imposition of costs that would create a loss of efficiency.   In the jargon of neoclassical economics, government actions typically “dis-tort” the operation of economies. In the mainstream framework, then, macroeconomic policies are evaluated according to how well they leave competitive markets alone, free from government impositions.   In the post-2008 context, it strains the limits of credibility to argue that all markets are efficient, much less that they guarantee lives with dignity and capabilities for every-one when left to their own devices. It’s true that markets can distribute jobs, goods, services, and capital throughout society at large. But they don’t necessarily do so equitably.   Left on their own, markets, when operating in a context of power imbalances, may create conditions of widespread unemployment (“labor market flexibility,” in the neoclassical vernacular) and underemployment, suppressed wages, ineffective public services, commodity shortages, and, of course, periodic financial crisis, which dispro-portionately harm the most vulnerable.   In this guide, we propose an alternative approach, based on human rights. The human rights approach constitutes an alternative evaluative and ethical frame-work for assessing economic policies and outcomes.   The goals of social justice are expressed in terms of the realization of rights—both civil and political rights and also economic, social, and cultural rights.   The human rights approach allows for a complex interaction between individual rights, collective rights, and collective action. It focuses on substantive freedoms (not just freedom in law, but freedoms of individuals, seen as active agents of change, rather than as passive recipients of dispensed benefits) and equality for realized outcomes, not just opportunities.   It sees economic policy as a social and political process that should conform to human rights standards and laws, not as a purely technocratic exercise.   It incorporates an understanding of the paradoxical character of the state, recognizing that states can both enable and deny social justice and that individuals need protection against misuse of state power, as well as requiring the power of the state to be harnessed to realize individual rights.   Most importantly, it is consistent with an international legal framework and provides formal mechanisms through which policy can be contested and the need for legal accountability can be raised.   There are profound differences between prevailing assessment practices and the evaluative methodology we are proposing based on human rights.   Most importantly for activists, our methodology offers a set of tools for auditing macroeconomic policy based on internationally accepted and legally binding human rights standards on a variety of issues that have been debated and agreed upon by governments since 1948.   In this way, activists can muster powerful arguments against a range of macroeconomic policies, using a framework already ratified and accepted by the vast majority of the world’s countries, with a well-developed infrastructure for making claims and pressing for compliance.   It’s not hard to imagine the utility of such a framework for activists engaged in any number of social struggles, from the battle over universal healthcare, to union drives in major industries, to the emerging campaigns for “peoples’ audits” of privately-held public debt.   One important aspect of this framework is that it returns power to the people whose lives are caught up in macroeconomic processes that are too often outside of their control but which influence them deeply.   The discourse and procedures of human rights position people as “rights holders,” especially those who are undervalued or who suffer discrimination, disadvantage, and exclusion.   The human rights framework positions people as active agents, claiming what is rightfully theirs, not merely as victims asking for charitable handouts. It has an ethical and legal authority absent from most economic analysis.   The worst that an economist can say of a government’s budget is that it is imprudent, unsound, unsustainable, or inefficient, while the human rights advocate can say that it fails to comply with state obligations and violates human rights.   This may apply even if the budget is deemed to be prudent, sound, sustainable, and efficient by economists. The human rights framework allows us to move beyond a narrow focus on things like Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or income when evaluating economic outcomes.   Instead, the human rights framework stresses the progressive realization of economic and social rights over time. Advances in social justice are achieved when the enjoyment of the rights to an adequate standard of living, education, health, work, and social security improves over time.   http://forum.cartercenter.org/media/auditing-economic-policy-human-rights-guide-activists-and-advocates Visit the related web page
	The devastating impact the conflict in Ethiopia has had on civilians by UN News, OCHA, OHCHR, agencies Ethiopia   Apr. 2022   Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issue joint report alleging campaign of ethnic cleansing in in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone.   Amhara regional security forces and civilian authorities in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone have committed widespread abuses against Tigrayans since November 2020 that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Ethiopian authorities have severely restricted access and independent scrutiny of the region, keeping the campaign of ethnic cleansing largely hidden.   The report, “‘We Will Erase You From This Land’: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone,” documents how newly-appointed officials in Western Tigray and security forces from the neighbouring Amhara region, with the acquiescence and possible participation of Ethiopian federal forces, systematically expelled several hundred thousand Tigrayan civilians from their homes using threats, unlawful killings, sexual violence, mass arbitrary detention, pillage, forcible transfer, and the denial of humanitarian assistance. These widespread and systematic attacks against the Tigrayan civilian population amount to crimes against humanity as well as war crimes.   “Since November 2020, Amhara officials and security forces have engaged in a relentless campaign of ethnic cleansing to force Tigrayans in Western Tigray from their homes,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. “Ethiopian authorities have steadfastly denied the shocking breadth of the crimes that have unfolded and have egregiously failed to address them.”   The Ethiopian government should ensure immediate and sustained access to the region for humanitarian agencies, release all those arbitrarily detained, and investigate and appropriately prosecute those responsible for abuses. Any consensual agreement reached by the parties to the armed conflict should include the deployment of an AU-led international peacekeeping force to the Western Tigray Zone to ensure the protection of all communities from abuses.   “The response of Ethiopia’s international and regional partners has failed to reflect the gravity of the crimes that continue to unfold in Western Tigray,” said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International. “Concerned governments need to help bring an end to the ethnic cleansing campaign, ensure that Tigrayans are able to safely and voluntarily return home, and make a concerted effort to obtain justice for these heinous crimes.”   http://www.hrw.org/news/2022/04/06/ethiopia-crimes-against-humanity-western-tigray-zone   Nov. 2021   Tigray conflict: Report calls for accountability for violations and abuses by all parties. (OHCHR)   A joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the UN Human Rights Office has found that there are reasonable grounds to believe that all parties to the conflict in Tigray have, to varying degrees, committed violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law, some of which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.   In a report published today, which examines the devastating impact the conflict has had on civilians, the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) details a series of violations and abuses, including unlawful killings and extra-judicial executions, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, violations against refugees, and forced displacement of civilians.   The report covers the period from 3 November 2020, when the armed conflict began between the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF), the Eritrean Defence Force (EDF), the Amhara Special Forces (ASF), the Amhara Fano and other militias on one side, and the Tigrayan Special Forces (TSF), Tigrayan militia and other allied groups on the other, until 28 June 2021 when the Ethiopian Government declared a unilateral ceasefire.   The JIT visited several locations, including Mekelle, Eastern Tigray (Wukro), Southeastern Tigray (Samre and nearby areas), Southern Tigray (Alamata, Bora and Maichew), Western Tigray (Dansha, Humera and Mai Kadra), and Bahir Dar and Gondar in the Amhara region, as well as Addis Ababa. The JIT conducted 269 confidential interviews with victims and witnesses of alleged violations and abuses, and other sources; and held over 60 meetings with federal and regional officials, representatives of international organisations, NGOs, community-based committees, medical personnel, and other sources.   The JIT faced several security, operational, and administrative challenges in carrying out its work, in particular being unable to carry out all planned visits to parts of Tigray. The report acknowledges with gratitude the many victims and witnesses who shared their experiences with the JIT, and thanks the Ethiopian and non-governmental entities for their cooperation.   "As the conflict expands with more reports of violations and abuses, this report presents an opportunity for all parties to acknowledge responsibility and commit to concrete measures on accountability, redress for victims and the search for a sustainable solution to end the suffering of millions," said Daniel Bekele, Chief Commissioner of the EHRC. "EHRC remains engaged in monitoring the human rights situation since end of June and will be sharing its findings in due course," Bekele said.   "The Tigray conflict has been marked by extreme brutality. The gravity and seriousness of the violations and abuses we have documented underscore the need to hold perpetrators accountable on all sides," said Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.   "As the conflict has escalated, with civilians as ever caught in the middle, it is vital that all parties heed the repeated calls to end hostilities and seek a lasting ceasefire," said Bachelet.   http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/tigray-conflict-report-calls-accountability-violations-and-abuses-all-parties-enar   Nov. 2021   UN Secretary-General extremely concerned over Declared State of Emergency in Ethiopia. (UN News)   The Secretary‑General is extremely concerned by the escalation of violence in Ethiopia and the recent declaration of a state of emergency. The stability of Ethiopia and the wider region is at stake.   The Secretary‑General reiterates his call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, unrestricted humanitarian access to deliver urgent life‑saving assistance, and an inclusive national dialogue to resolve this crisis and create the foundation for peace and stability throughout the country.   According to the latest update from the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office (OCHA), released on Monday, the overall situation in Northern Ethiopia “remains unpredictable, volatile, and highly tense.”   Fuel for humanitarian operations has not entered Tigray since early August, forcing most humanitarian partners to significantly reduce or suspend their activities. In addition to lack of fuel, activities are compromised by the lack of supplies, cash, banking services and communications. The UN and its partners are only able to continue small-scale response in a few areas.   No convoys with supplies have entered Tigray since 18 October. As a result, nutrition response for children and women decreased in Tigray by at least 50 per cent.   With the conflict expanding, the humanitarian situation in the neighbouring regions to Tigray, Afar and Amhara, continues to deteriorate. Ongoing fighting is preventing the delivery of assistance and is causing displacement, disruption of livelihoods and widespread food insecurity.   Thousands are feared killed in the north, amidst allegations of widespread human rights abuses on all sides, with more than two million forced to flee their homes.   Over the past few months, humanitarian needs have grown, amid killings, looting and destruction of health centres and farming infrastructure, including irrigation systems that are vital to the production effort. Acute food insecurity is affecting up to 7 million people throughout Ethiopia. http://bit.ly/3GNAvvg   http://www.wfp.org/news/millions-more-need-food-assistance-direct-result-conflict-northern-ethiopia-says-wfp http://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1106652 http://bit.ly/32HQk7q http://bit.ly/3djYepu http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipc-country-analysis/en/?country=ETH http://www.acaps.org/country/ethiopia/crisis/complex-crisis   18 Oct. 2021   The United Nations has received alarming reports of aerial attacks in the residential areas of Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, on Monday morning local time.   Speaking to reporters in New York, the UN Spokesperson said the Organization was still trying to verify the details, but it is worried about the potential impact on civilians who reside or work in the affected areas.   According to Stéphane Dujarric, the Secretary-General is “deeply concerned” over the escalation of the conflict in northern Ethiopia.   Fighting erupted in Tigray nearly a year ago between the Ethiopian military and forces of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the main political force in region. Thousands are feared killed amidst allegations of widespread human rights abuses, with more than two million forced to flee their homes.   Over the past few months, humanitarian needs have grown, amid killings, looting and destruction of health centres and farming infrastructure, including irrigation systems that are vital to the production effort.   Civilians harmed   According to Mr. Dujarric, António Guterres is stressing that all parties must avoid the targeting of civilians or civilian infrastructure, and reiterated his call for all hostilities to stop.   “He urges the parties to prioritize the welfare of the people and to provide the necessary support for critical humanitarian assistance to flow, including facilitating the movement of fuel and medicines”, Mr. Dujarric said.   The lack of essential supplies, especially cash and fuel, is severely disrupting aid operations in Tigray, where at least 400,000 people are now facing famine-like conditions.   Under international humanitarian law, all parties have an obligation to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. This includes hundreds of humanitarian workers who are working tirelessly to aid millions of civilians.   Civilians are being “caught up in the fighting and the fighting itself is forcing us to reduce life-saving operations when people need them most, including food distributions, water distribution and health services”, Mr. Dujarric said.   The conflict has spilled into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar, where the ability to reach people in dire need of assistance, has also been hampered.   In the three regions – Tigray, Amhara and Afar – up to seven million people are now in dire need of food assistance, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). The majority of them, around 5.2 million are in Tigray.   Food continues to be urgently needed in Tigray Region, with at least 5.2 million people in need of emergency food assistance, including over 400,000 people in famine-like conditions (IPC 5: ‘catastrophic’ level of food insecurity) and more than 4 million people - 70 per cent of the population – experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity (IPC 3 or above).   As the conflict continues and humanitarian and commercial supplies remain sporadic and insufficient, more people could slide into famine like condition.   Infants and children under five years old, pregnant and nursing women, elderly, and people with disabilities or chronic diseases are particularly at increasing risks of starvation.   The UN is calling on all parties to urgently allow and facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of relief supplies and aid personnel, to all areas with humanitarian needs, including those affected by the recent fighting.   This includes fuel and cash, “without which humanitarians cannot do their work, and medicines, so our colleagues can reach people who desperately need assistance”, added Mr. Dujarric.   http://bit.ly/3npUwPR http://bit.ly/3B961Qn http://www.reuters.com/world/africa/exclusive-some-350000-people-ethiopias-tigray-famine-un-document-2021-06-09/ http://www.refugeesinternational.org/reports/2021/9/24/ethiopians-are-starving-in-silence http://www.acaps.org/country/ethiopia/crisis/crisis-in-tigray http://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ethiopia/ http://reliefweb.int/country/eth   26 Aug. 2021   Catastrophe ‘unfolding before our eyes’ in Ethiopia’s Tigray region – UN chief   A military confrontation that started 10 months ago in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region is spreading, with serious political, economic and humanitarian implications for the country and the broader region, the Secretary-General warned the Security Council on Thursday.   “A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes”, António Guterres warned. “The unity of Ethiopia and the stability of the region are at stake”, he added calling for an immediate ceasefire and the launch of national political dialogue.   Outlining the severity of the situation, the UN chief said the military front lines in Tigray have reached the regions of neighbouring Amhara and Afar.   The Government’s 28 June declaration of a unilateral ceasefire, and withdrawal of the National Defence Forces from Mekelle have not led to a comprehensive ceasefire.   Tigray remains under a de-facto humanitarian blockade and cut off from electricity and communications, the UN chief informed the Ambassadors.   Dire situation   Mr. Guterres said that actors in Ethiopia have entered the fight through mass mobilization and the activation of regional and armed groups.   “Inflammatory rhetoric and ethnic profiling are tearing apart the social fabric of the country”, he emphasized.   Moreover, the human price of the war is “mounting by the day”, as more than two million people have been displaced and millions more are in immediate need of food, water, shelter and health care, said the Secretary-General.   At least 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions, with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warning that 100,000 face severe acute malnutrition. Amid reports of sexual and gender-based violence, refugee camps have been destroyed and hospitals looted.   “I condemn these atrocious acts in the strongest possible terms”, underscored the Secretary-General. “There must be accountability”.   Tigray access limited, empty warehouses   While the Organization and its partners have mobilized to reach five million people with food, Mr. Guterres said that the response is “severely” constrained by insecurity, delays and a host of arbitrary restrictions on the work of humanitarian agencies.   Overland access into Tigray now depends on a single route, through Afar, which involves passing through numerous checkpoints.   At the same time, although agencies require roughly 100 trucks worth of assistance to reach Mekelle every day, no trucks have arrived for over a week. “Warehouses are now empty”, the UN chief said.   Beyond Tigray, the conflict in Afar and Amhara has displaced reportedly 300,000 more people, he said, events that have unfolded alongside efforts to maintain broader support across Ethiopia in response to intercommunal violence, flooding and locust infestation.   Mr. Guterres said the fighting has undermined Ethiopia’s economic situation. Credit access is drying up, inflation is on the rise and the country is suffering from the fifth-highest incidence of COVID-19 cases on the continent.   http://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1098582 http://reports.unocha.org/en/country/ethiopia http://reliefweb.int/country/eth http://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/2021-07-30_Statement-on-situation-in-Ethiopia.pdf http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/08/many-innocent-lives-must-lost-tigray-asks-adama-dieng/ http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/alerts-archive/issue-42/en/   Aug. 2021   Tigray aid response hit by suspensions, blockade, by Philip Kleinfeld for New Humanitarian.   The suspension of two major international relief organisations in Ethiopia could further worsen the humanitarian situation in Tigray, where an aid blockade is still effectively in place, even as conflict spreads into neighbouring regions and hundreds of thousands of people face famine.   The blockade, and a cash crunch caused by limited banking services in Tigray, have left aid groups struggling to function, and led to increased concerns about the welfare of the roughly 500 aid workers – both national and international – based in the region.   The risks are highest for Tigrayan staff who cannot easily leave the country and would be particularly vulnerable should federal forces retake the region, humanitarian officials told The New Humanitarian. Some have been displaced during the conflict and have lost family members and friends.   The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the Dutch section of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirmed last week that they had been barred from operating across the country for three months, with the government accusing them of “disseminating misinformation”.   Several aid officials working on the Tigray response told The New Humanitarian they were unsure how to interpret the timing of the suspensions but believe the organisations have been singled out either for their humanitarian work or for running advocacy campaigns the government didn’t like.   MSF was one of the main organisations delivering health services in Tigray, while NRC supported nearly 600,000 Ethiopians. A third group – the Dubai-based Al Maktoum Foundation – was also suspended.   The government claimed it had held “repeated discussions” with the aid agencies prior to suspending them, but issues weren’t fixed.   The suspensions – which come as the UN pushes back against government accusations that aid organisations are smuggling weapons to rebel groups in Tigray – is likely to further silence those wanting to speak out about what the UN referred to in June as the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade.   “The message [from the government] is that if you want to continue your programme in the country – let alone Tigray – then you will be silent,” said a senior aid official who is not based in Ethiopia but is working closely with colleagues on the ground.   The official, and three others who spoke to The New Humanitarian over the past week, all asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the government against their organisations and staff members in Ethiopia.   Aid workers told The New Humanitarian that agencies will be stretched thin as they try to meet the growing humanitarian caseload in new regions: Most are already struggling to assist the more than five million people in need of urgent assistance within Tigray.   The UN’s World Food Programme says about 100 trucks a day are needed to supply food, fuel, and other items to those in need of lifesaving support. Just a handful of convoys totalling a few hundred trucks have arrived in the region since late June.   Aid officials accuse Addis Ababa of delaying the provision of aid through various procedural hurdles, while attacks on humanitarian workers and convoys have further complicated operations. Twelve aid workers have been killed since the conflict began.   The Tigray conflict followed months of tension between the government and the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The TPLF dominated Ethiopian politics for almost three decades but lost power when Abiy took office in 2018 amid anti-government protests.   Addis Ababa announced a unilateral ceasefire on 28 June, but the authorities have since blocked aid convoys from going into the region, while cutting off electricity, telecommunications, banking, and trade.   In response, the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) – a military entity formed at the start of the conflict by civilians and existing Tigrayan military personnel – launched an offensive to break the blockade.   The NGO suspension, meanwhile, comes amid high-level visits from the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, Martin Griffiths, and USAID chief Samantha Power, who has called for the government to “unblock aid”.   Senior aid official said banning the Dutch section of MSF – the Spanish section had already halted its work in parts of Tigray after the June murder of three staff members – was designed to remove “the backbone of health in Tigray”.   It also punished an advocacy group that had documented “deliberate and widespread” attacks on healthcare facilities and described violence against civilians in the region as “utterly shocking”.   Though NRC has a smaller footprint in Tigray, it has also been outspoken on the crisis, making regular media appearances that have attracted the government’s attention and ire, said a well-placed second senior aid official. This source said the Ethiopian government is wary of the organisation’s secretary-general, Jan Egeland – a former UN relief chief perceived as having considerable influence among some of the Western diplomats leading calls for humanitarian access in Tigray.   The suspensions, the official added, could also be viewed as a “deflection” tactic aimed at forcing agencies to focus advocacy efforts on their reinstatement rather than on addressing the blockade and the humanitarian crisis.   A third senior relief worker, who was recently in Tigray, said fuel shortages caused by the blockade have prevented aid groups from trucking water to displacement camps, leaving some sites with no supplies for weeks.   As agencies scale back their operations – some are now entirely non-operational – the official said local NGOs and community groups are trying to fill the gaps. “They are doing their best, but the gap is huge,” the official said.   Agencies have requested frequent flights through the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service. But just two flights have been authorised by the government so far, making it difficult to rotate staff in and out of the region, and to respond to medical emergencies.   The aid officials who spoke to The New Humanitarian said Tigray-based colleagues are struggling to contact their families due to communication issues; are forced to work in the dark; and in some cases are down to one meal a day for want of cash.   “Staff have not been paid salaries for one or two months [in some cases],” said the third official. “In an environment of inflation and price rises, it puts staff and their families in a precarious situation.”   http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/atrocity-alert-no-265-afghanistan-ethiopia-and-sudan/ http://www.globalr2p.org/countries/ethiopia/ http://www.channel4.com/news/tigray-the-horrors-of-the-hidden-war http://starvationaccountability.org/news-and-events/tigray-one-year-on-an-anniversary-of-famine-and-conflict http://reliefweb.int/report/ethiopia/tigray-conflict-report-calls-accountability-violations-and-abuses-all-parties-enar Visit the related web page
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