#CBAvota #boletaunicaCBA This coming Sunday 7th August, report on what you see at your polling station and tell us about your experience using the new Boleta Única voting system (where voters receive one ballot paper showing the names of all candidates, as opposed to the old system where voters would receive a separate ballot paper for each candidate). You can do this through your Twitter account or by sending an SMS to 351 2581379.
Next Sunday, 7th August, provincial authorities will be elected across Córdoba for the first time using the new Boleta Única voting system, as well as an electronic vote pilot to be tried out in La Falda. On that day, the Córdoba Transparente programme (a joint initiative between FUNDEPS and Ciudadanos 365) will reveal its domesticElectoral Observation Mission.
Non-governmental organisations have been authorised for the first time to take charge of the electoral observation process in Córdoba. Córdoba Transparente’s observation team will invigilate the running of the polling booths which will be using the electronic vote in La Falda and the Boleta Única voting system in other localities of the province, gauging the electorate’s perceptions in the use of these voting methods. They’ll also be present at the counting centres in La Falda and Feriar to monitor the scrutinising processes there.
Voters’ observation of the new system
To complement the work carried out by the observation team, we would like to invite all voters to become electoral observers themselves on polling day by using your mobile phones and social networks. By sending us an SMS to 351 2581379 or by posting on our Twitter account (with the hashtags #CBAvota y #boletaunicaCBA) all citizens will be able to report on what they witness at their polling station and tell us about their experience of using the Boleta Única voting system.
We aim to complement the work carried out by the electoral observation team with the perspective of every citizen, meaning we’ll all be contributing to a transparent and democratic process. The lessons learned from this experience will be implemented in October’s national elections.
How to report via SMS? (without additional charges)
It’s really simple, all you have to do is send us an SMS to 351 2581379 with your report, indicating your polling station. Your SMS reports are received via the FrontlineSMS system and posted anonymously on the @CBAvota Twitter account.
In order to receive a reminder on polling day, you have to send us an SMS with the word VOTO before Sunday.
To avoid your report being posted on the @CBAvota Twitter account, you must precede your message with the wordNOPUBLICAR.
If an SMS was sent to you in error and you don’t wish to receive anything else from the number 351 2581379, reply with the word DESUSCRIBIR.
What can citizens report to us?
Problems getting the polling booths open on time;
Delays in casting votes;
Difficulties in using the Boleta Única voting system;
Propaganda used by a candidate or the use of party emblems;
Orientation or inducement to vote a certain way;
Hampering of the vote;
The absence of election officials at the polling station, etc.
We also invite you to make any other comments relating to the electoral process and use of the Boleta Única voting system.
To find out more about the elections: www.eleccionescordoba.com.ar – http://www.eleccionescordoba.com.ar/ is where you can look up where to vote (Electoral Register) and have a go on a Boleta Única simulator.
Translated by Thomas Mcguinn
Documento de Trabajo 1/2014: “Transparencia, una cuenta pendiente para el BNDES” – January 2014
En este Documento de Trabajo de FUNDEPS aborda la creciente necesidad de que el Banco Nacional de Desarrollo Económico y Social del Brasil (BNDES) incremente la transparencia en sus operaciones. A medida que el financiamiento del BNDES en Sudamérica se incrementa, y se intensifican los impactos socioambientales de losproyectos que financia, se hace cada vez más evidente la necesidad de que la Institución adopte una Política de Acceso a la Información y transparente su accionar en la región.
Urgent Environmental Report Requested on Stream Contamination in Chicamtoltina, Alta Gracia
An urgent environmental information report has been requested asking for further information in light of the increasing stream contamination in Chicamtoltina, Alta Gracia.
The authorities have given no responses as the Chicamtoltina streams have been declared an environmental emergency, compromising both the health and environment of the inhabitants of Alta Gracia and Anisacate. FUNDEPS supported residents in requesting an urgent report to find out more information.
The present state of the Alta Gracia lagoons is alarming. Although initially, the sanitary works project envisaged for the city treatment centre proposed constructing six basins, only four have been built to date. Furthermore, six basins are considered suitable to meet the needs of 15 thousand inhabitants, however, the population of the area currently reaches a total of 50 thousand.
According to information that FUNDEPS has, constructing this group of basins was tendered for, even though at least four more basins are needed for the sewage treatment systems to function effectively. In this context, 40 percent of the population does not have adequate sanitary facilities.Residents of the area have toured the sanitary lagoons facilities to establish the present situation. Firstly, incoming sewage pipes were found covered with cement and soil. Similarly, the filter screens were blocked.
Also, large quantities of waste were seen stuck around the basin edges due to saturation. What’s more, the saturated funnel did not allow the waste to separate and there were no signs of excavation in the area where one of the tendered basins is supposed to be built. The reed beds, in the treatment centre, were also found to be damaged and in a complete state of abandonment. The site shows evidence of significant deterioration: there were abundant mounds of mud contaminated with bacteria, to the extent where lime has had to be thrown on the sewage waste in some areas. The situation gets worse, considering that the main destination for the sewage waste is the streams of Alta Gracia, Chicamtoltina.
This is a situation that compromises the health of the inhabitants and the environment of the area. Sewage liquid flowing into the Chicamtoltina Stream In spite of the insistence of the Alta Gracia and Anisacate residents, who have protested and submitted an environmental information request to the authorities for a report on the existence of a project improving the sanitary lagoons, the authorities have made no kind of response nor resolution in this regard. For this reason, FUNDEPS has helped the residents submit an urgent environmental information report to obtain information relating to an eventual improvement, which will end this situation of health and environmental degradation.
Likewise, other legal options are being explored to stop the activities of the sewage treatment company Establecimiento de Depuración de Líquidos Cloacales C.O.S.A.G. LTDA and to repair the environmental damage already caused.
For further information:
please contact: info@fundeps.org
Translated by Clare Sharman
FUNDEPS takes part in the Preparatory Meeting of UNASUR’s First Citizen Participation Forum
The creation of this open space received a warm welcome from civil society organizations and movements. Additionally, it underlined the importance of ensuring mechanisms of transparency, accountability and community participation, as UNASUR is a space from which large projects with a significant impact can be initiated.
With a number of important national and regional organisations and social movements in attendance, the Preparatory Meeting of UNASUR’s first Citizen’s Participation Forum took place on 19th and 20th September in Buenos Aires. Organised by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, the main purpose of the meeting was to agree with South American citizens the Forum’s Operating Guidelines which were approved by the Heads of Council and Heads of State of UNASUR’s Governing body in August 2013; and to discuss its internal structure and workings, in light of the first Citizens Participation Forum (CPF) due to take place in November in the city of Cochabamba in Bolivia.
The meeting’s dynamics were based on the organisation of work groups made up of representatives from South American social groups and various representatives and civil servants of UNASUR’s member States. Each group discussed all three of the main topics on the agenda: the Internal Workings of the Forum; regional topics for discussion by the Forum; and the “Route Map” leading up to the first Forum in Cochabamba.
The creation of a citizen participation space, as part of the integration process at a regional and national level which UNASUR is taking forward is welcome and long anticipated, and is the result of what is stipulated in Article 18 of their Founding Treaty. For this reason, the majority of the social groups which took part in the meeting asked that the political decision of member States to pursue the creation of the Citizen Participation Forum be highlighted and congratulated.
At any rate, during the conference the work groups reflected their intention to validate and strengthen this initiative, as well as strongly emphasising the need to work exhaustively and continually on the internal workings of the Forum in order to reach an effective level of operation. As a result, amongst other things, it underlined the importance of:
It should be noted that participation in the CPF is open to any South American organisation, social movement, community or individual, for which it brings together and encourages everyone interested in participating in a process destined to play an important role in the integration of the South American people. For this reason, time and again throughout the meeting, the representative of the Argentinian Foreign Ministry, Marcela Bordenave, Focal Point for Citizen Participation in Argentina in respect of UNASUR emphasised that: “South American integration is not an issue for governments. It is a matter for the people”.
See the minutes of the Meeting of South America Social Groups to prepare for the first Citizen Participation Forum of UNASUR.
For more information:
Página Web de UNASUR
Página web de Cancillería Argentina – Sección de la Subsecretaría de Política Latinoamericana
Tratado Constitutivo de UNASUR
Directrices para el Funcionamiento del Foro de Participación Ciudadana de UNASUR
Declaración de Paramaribo – Agosto de 2013
Decisión N°2/2013 de UNASUR – Aprobación de las Directrices del Foro de Participación Ciudadana
Decisión N°7/2012 de UNASUR – Creación del Foro de Participación Ciudadana
Contact:
Lic. Gonzalo Roza / Programme Coordinator of Global Governance
gon.roza@fundeps.org
Translated by: Stephen Routledge
Amicus curiae to defend the right to health and the environment in Alta Gracia
The field of Human Rights of FUNDEPS presents amicus curiae demanding the effective application of the ban on fumigating in areas of protected environmental area in Alta Gracia to adequately protect the right to health and a healthy environment for the people.
The field of Human Rights of the Foundation for the Development of Sustainable Policy (FUNDEPS) filed an amicus curiae before the chamber No. 8 of the Civil and Commercial Court of the City of Córdoba, which has to decide on an appeal given by the agro-industrial company Verdol S.A. to obtain, through a preventative measure, permission to use agrochemicals in the area established by the town of Alta Gracia as “Protected Environmental Area.”
International requests for the World Bank to change its perspective on health programmes
FUNDEPS signs up to the petition of 110 non-governmental organisations calling for the World Bank to change the criteria relating to projects in the area of health and to actively promote universal health coverage.
At the end of the World Bank’s annual meeting which took place in Tokyo, Japan, numerous non-governmental organizations presented a letter requesting that the World Bank modify the criteria relating to projects in the area of health and that it actively promotes universal health coverage.
As part of their work on health rights, FUNDEPS signed up to the initiative which makes specific recommendations to the World Bank to change practices in the area of health. The thrust of this request is to understand health as a right which cannot be subject to market rules but rather by the logic of the need to protect the most vulnerable; those who in practice are denied the right to health. The recommendations include:
These organizations will monitor the responses to these requests and the impact of World Bank programs in the effective enjoyment of the right to health.
For more information:
– Note calling for a change of perspective of the World Bank programs in the field of health
Translated by Stephen Routledge
World Access to Public Information Day
On the occasion of commemorating the World Access to Public Information Day, César Murúa, coordinator of the FUNDEPS Area of Democratic Governance and co-administrator of the Transparent Cordoba Program, has published an article along with Mariano Mosquera, with their reflections regarding this right and the institutional implications it entails.
In the article published today in the La Voz del Interior newspaper, some assessments stand out:
Despite the existence of norms, as apparent in the provincial as in the municipal order, the access to public information is not a practice propagated to citizens, nor have governmental bodies been capable of adapting their complex political and bureaucratic systems to principles of publicity and transparency of their actions. (…)
The issue of lack of access to public information in the power of the State is not only related to the normative flaws or to the lack of spreading this right, but also to the culture of secrecy. The reluctance of institutions and their political and administrative servants to deliver information can undermine even the most progressive norms and the most active citizens.
Although the policies to promote governmental transparency have begun to gain a place within political discourse, this unfortunately does not correspond to policies which are truly effective. The lack of launching institutions, specialized in coordinating the compliance of terms and the forms for providing public information, erodes any proclamation of transparency.
On behalf of FUNDEPS, we follow these reflections in the commemoration of this day, while we continue to work towards institutions, which are more open, transparent and which actively seek to provide information.
For more information:
Article, published in La Voz del Interior, “A Right, Which Must Be Respected”
Contact:
César Murúa
cmurua@fundeps.org
Translated by Alexandra Botti
Towards a Framework Convention on World Health
FUNDEPS supports global efforts to achieve a framework convention on World Health that assures equal standards in the exercise of the human right to health.
According to World Health Organization statistics, the enormous health inequalities between rich and poor countries (and inequalities within these same countries) have resulted in nearly 20 million avoidable deaths every year for the last two decades. This represents one out of every three deaths worldwide. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights establishes the right of all people to enjoy the highest possible level of physical and mental health. The concrete meaning of that right is not clear, however, and has been interpreted in a variety of ways in different contexts.
Bearing in mind the inequalities in health, both between different countries and between different sectors within each country, FUNDEPS supports a worldwide campaign based on the human right to health. This campaign seeks to ensure that governments guarantee conditions that allow all people to be healthy. It also recognizes the importance of existing international laws, at the same time noting how difficult it is for those in need to assert their rights with these laws. The Framework Convention on World Health being convened will reinforce international laws and extend their reach to our communities, to create the conditions for the health and wellbeing of all people.
The first manifesto of the campaign reads: “We affirm the right of all people to enjoy the highest possible level of physical and mental health. Making this human right a reality will require committed governments, a strong civil society, universal social protections, global solidarity, and other existing resources currently denied to the poor.”
Although this movement is still in the initial phase of investigation and dissemination it already has the support of academics, civil society, and international institutions.
FUNDEPS will be joining the campaign from Argentina, collaborating in investigative efforts needed to establish legal standards for the protection of health and also spreading the word about the initiative. Check this link for an invitation to sign the manifesto.
More information:
Initiative for a Framework Convention on Global Health
Health for all. Justice for all. Campaign for a Framework Convention on Global Health
Contact:
Juan Carballo, juanmcarballo@fundeps.org
Traducido por James Cochran
Más información:
Iniciativa por una Convención Marco sobre Salud Global
Salud para todos y todas. Justicia para todos y todas. Campaña por una Convención Marco de Salud Global
Contacto:
Juan Carballo
juanmcarballo@fundeps.org
The CESCR recommendations for Argentina
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published their findings and recommendations for Argentina.
The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), a monitoring body of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights published its findings and recommendations for Argentina in a process that contained a preliminary report carried out by the Argentine State and various shadow reports from civil society organisations, which can be seen in the list of documents attached to this Committee meeting.
It should be noted that, taking this report into account, the Committee carried out specific recommendations for tobacco control in the following way: “The Committee recommends the State party to ratify the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control and develop fiscal policies, pricing and raising people’s awareness in order to effectively reduce smoking, in particular among women and young people.”
As well as this, we highlight other recommendations related to the right to access adequate housing:
– The Committee urges the State party to ratify housing policies in order to guarantee everyone has access to adequate and affordable housing, with legal security of tenure.
– Furthermore, the State party is encouraged to fight effectively against speculation in the housing market, in land use and construction, taking into account its General Comment No.4 (1991), related to the right to access adequate housing.
-The Committee also urges the State party to adopt specific measures, legislative or other, so that people who have been victims of forced eviction can get alternative housing or fair and just compensation in accordance with the provisions in the General Comment No. 7 (1997), relating to forced evictions.
More information:
Observaciones finales del Comité de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales para Argentina
(Concluding observations from the The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for Argentina)
Contact:
info@fundeps.org
Translated by: Rachel Henderson
Presentation of initial questions to the Argentinian report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
As part of an NGO Coalition from Argentina, that submitted a document to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Fundeps presented questions linked to the right to adequate housing.
Within the framework of the third reporting process to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a group of NGOs submitted a paper with initial questions for the State of Argentina. These questions will be addressed by the working group prior to the sessions taking place from 23 to 27 May 2011 in Geneva. After this first discussion forum the Committee, in exercise of the duties enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), will submit a report of compliance with the obligations of this Covenant on behalf of Argentina. (The working agenda and reference materials, including that developed by this NGO alliance, can be found on the Committee website.)
A group of Argentine NGOs, coordinated by the Centre for Legal and Social Studies (CELS), developed this document raising deeper questions in response to the first report submitted on behalf of the Republic of Argentina. The questions particularly relate to rights recognised by the ICESCR such as labour rights, the right to education, the right to health or the right of access to adequate housing. Each of these rights are effectively Human Rights which generate corresponding obligations on the part of the Argentine State. The document seeks further information regarding the actions taken by the State and draws the Committee’s attention to situations that involve violations of these rights.
The contribution from FUNDEPS was made in respect of access to adequate housing (ICESCR Article 11). This section sets out, for example, that “the evictions are facilitated by a combination of policies that were already questioned by the ESCR Committee in their recommendations to the Argentine State in 1999. Not only were these policies not modified but many provinces took inspiration from them in order to sanction measures which facilitate evictions in their own regions”. Furthermore, it describes another problem in the sense that “in many cases, the location of social housing reinforces the residential segregation of the most disadvantaged sectors of society, depriving them of access to quality infrastructures and urban facilities”. It is suggested that “in order to develop inclusive and sustainable housing policies and to control the price of land and rents, it is vital to adopt a national planning and land use law and to regulate the right to private property”.
Finally, some of the questions in this section include:
1. What conventions determine the location of the new house building schemes in the framework of the Federal Housing Plan? What criteria are used to assign the housing and to decide the geographical distribution of the plan?
5. What measures does the State intend to adopt to limit the anticipated evictions under the procedural policies which govern civil eviction procedures and the offence of usurpation?
6. What measures does the Argentine State plan to adopt in order to avoid families being left on the streets by the evictions?
Documents:
– Informe paralelo de ONGs al Comité de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales
– Informe elevado por Argentina al Comité de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales
Contact:
Martín Juárez Ferrer
Director – Clínica Jurídica de Fundeps
martinjuarezf@fundeps.org
Translated by: Katherine Wingfield-Dobbs
Monitoring the Municipal Election of the City of Córdoba
The Córdoba Transparent Program deployed a local election observation mission that developed media content showing different aspects of the election day.
Delays in the arrival of the FIPE (Institute of Economic Research Foundation) to the polls Study of the single ballot used in the municipal elections of Córdoba Election Day from within
Contact:
César Murúa / Executive Director
cmurua@fundeps.org
Translated by Robyn Franklin
Report on electoral observation in Córdoba
The Cordoba Transparente programme (an initiative carried out in conjunction with the foundation citizens 365 and FUNDEPS) presents it’s electoral mission report developed during the last elections in the province of Cordoba, Argentina.
In the context of the election of local authorities in Cordoba, the Cordoba Transparente programme (carried out in conjunction with the foundation citizens 365 and FUNDEPS) launched an Electoral Observation Mission with a double aim. On the one hand it monitors the functioning of a new electoral system, which is the result of a political reform put in place in 2008. On the other hand, it looks at consolidation of democracy, through an independent domestic electoral observation, a practice that is completely new in our province. This helps to us to progress further down the road that the electoral observation in Marcos Juarez started us on in 2010.
Following on from this, we present a Final Report on Electoral Observation that has been put together under the agreement reached by our own institutions and the judicial powers of the region, under the general guidelines for experiences and electoral observation missions of nationals and non-nationals approved by the regulatory agreement 1066/A of the high court of justice. The independent domestic electoral observation is for institutes lacking regulation in the electoral regime in Cordoba. As a consequence, The Cordoba Transparente initiative has put in place, the formalisation of a practice that we trust will over time consolidate and multiply between independent organisations in a serious and responsible way. Some of the most important general observations that are elaborated on in the report as follows:
In particular, regarding the electronic vote, the current report presents a comparison of the systems used in Marcos Juarez in 2010 and La Falda in 2011, two cases that were both observed by the Cordoba Transparente Programme. The new system responds to the objections linked to the possibility of tracking voting, with the consequent threat to the secrecy of the vote. On the other hand, technicians within the licensed company acted as de facto attorneys at a time when there was no investigation of the source code of the software used, information that was not provided to politicians, attorneys or electoral observers. The following are a few more observations:
More information:
Informe Final de Observacion Electoral
Contacto:
César Múrua / Director Ejecutivo
cmurua@fundeps.org
Translated by Luke Sidaway
This Sunday we’ll all be able to observe the election in Córdoba, Argentina
#CBAvota #boletaunicaCBA This coming Sunday 7th August, report on what you see at your polling station and tell us about your experience using the new Boleta Única voting system (where voters receive one ballot paper showing the names of all candidates, as opposed to the old system where voters would receive a separate ballot paper for each candidate). You can do this through your Twitter account or by sending an SMS to 351 2581379.
Next Sunday, 7th August, provincial authorities will be elected across Córdoba for the first time using the new Boleta Única voting system, as well as an electronic vote pilot to be tried out in La Falda. On that day, the Córdoba Transparente programme (a joint initiative between FUNDEPS and Ciudadanos 365) will reveal its domesticElectoral Observation Mission.
Non-governmental organisations have been authorised for the first time to take charge of the electoral observation process in Córdoba. Córdoba Transparente’s observation team will invigilate the running of the polling booths which will be using the electronic vote in La Falda and the Boleta Única voting system in other localities of the province, gauging the electorate’s perceptions in the use of these voting methods. They’ll also be present at the counting centres in La Falda and Feriar to monitor the scrutinising processes there.
Voters’ observation of the new system
To complement the work carried out by the observation team, we would like to invite all voters to become electoral observers themselves on polling day by using your mobile phones and social networks. By sending us an SMS to 351 2581379 or by posting on our Twitter account (with the hashtags #CBAvota y #boletaunicaCBA) all citizens will be able to report on what they witness at their polling station and tell us about their experience of using the Boleta Única voting system.
We aim to complement the work carried out by the electoral observation team with the perspective of every citizen, meaning we’ll all be contributing to a transparent and democratic process. The lessons learned from this experience will be implemented in October’s national elections.
How to report via SMS? (without additional charges)
It’s really simple, all you have to do is send us an SMS to 351 2581379 with your report, indicating your polling station. Your SMS reports are received via the FrontlineSMS system and posted anonymously on the @CBAvota Twitter account.
In order to receive a reminder on polling day, you have to send us an SMS with the word VOTO before Sunday.
To avoid your report being posted on the @CBAvota Twitter account, you must precede your message with the wordNOPUBLICAR.
If an SMS was sent to you in error and you don’t wish to receive anything else from the number 351 2581379, reply with the word DESUSCRIBIR.
What can citizens report to us?
Problems getting the polling booths open on time;
Delays in casting votes;
Difficulties in using the Boleta Única voting system;
Propaganda used by a candidate or the use of party emblems;
Orientation or inducement to vote a certain way;
Hampering of the vote;
The absence of election officials at the polling station, etc.
We also invite you to make any other comments relating to the electoral process and use of the Boleta Única voting system.
To find out more about the elections: www.eleccionescordoba.com.ar – http://www.eleccionescordoba.com.ar/ is where you can look up where to vote (Electoral Register) and have a go on a Boleta Única simulator.
Translated by Thomas Mcguinn