Remarks
South-South Human Rights Forum
Parallel session: Realization of inclusive development and human rights under South-South cooperation
Mr. Nicholas Rosellini, UN Resident Coordinator in China
Central Section, Jin Yun Ballroom
Beijing Capital Hotel
14.30-17.30, 7 December 2017
Mr. GONG Sen, Executive Vice President, China Center for International Knowledge on Development
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is my pleasure to be here today at the South-South Human Rights Forum. I would like to start by thanking the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for co-organizing this important event.
I would also like to thank the China Center for International Knowledge on Development for sponsoring this parallel session on the important topic of “Realization of Inclusive Development and Human Rights under South-South Cooperation”.
South-South Cooperation is an increasingly important vehicle to achieve sustainable development. Despite continuous progress, the world today is still faced with significant development challenges. Poverty still plagues hundreds of millions and income inequality continues to increase.
To address these challenges, world leaders unanimously adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. With its 17 Sustainable Development Goals, 169 targets and 232 individual indicators the 2030 Agenda is ambitious in scope and cover nearly all aspects of development. But simply put, it aims to ensure a more sustainable and resilient future, where no one is left behind.
With the concept of ‘leaving no one behind’ at its heart, the 2030 Agenda, places strong emphasis on inclusive development. Recognizing that past development gains did not always reach the poor and most vulnerable and that certain population groups remain at a large disadvantage; inclusive development is integrated throughout the 17 Goals. In addition, Goal number 10, is specifically dedicated to reducing inequality.
World-wide, household income inequality within countries is increasing. On average income inequality increased by 11 per cent in developing countries between 1990 and 2010. More than 75 per cent of the population in developing countries are today living in societies where income is more unequally distributed than it was in the 1990s. The challenge of income inequality cannot be effectively tackled unless the underlying inequality of opportunities, including access to health and education is addressed.
The scale and ambition of the 2030 Agenda, has opened the door for South-South Cooperation to play an instrumental role in achieving development goals for two reasons.
First, to realize the goals, enhanced global partnerships that better reflect the new realities of developing countries and varied country contexts are needed. By focusing on solving complex problems based on previously tested experiences in similar development contexts, South-South Cooperation has the potential of providing more adaptive, locally relevant and often cheaper solutions.
Second, there is also an increasing momentum for South-South Cooperation to further expand beyond its original focus on industrial cooperation to the realization of inclusive development and human rights.
However, to play a positive force towards inclusive development and human rights, further efforts are needed to ensure that activities conducted under South-South Cooperation does not undermine, but rather advance inclusive development and human rights.
Inclusive development is about reaching vulnerable groups and those left behind. This can only be achieved with meaningful involvement of these groups and through processes that are based on participation, accountability, transparency, inclusiveness, non-discrimination and fairness. In this sense, the realization of inclusive development and human rights are mutually reinforcing, but they are not synonymous.
In addition, there are many contexts in which the human rights of those left behind in poverty, as well as other citizens, might potentially be violated through actions taken as part of development cooperation, including South-South Cooperation.
They include cases relating to land expropriation, environmental
degradation, workers rights, and access to social services and entitlements. To
ensure that development cooperation does not undermine the human rights of
vulnerable groups or any other citizen, it is critical to establish adequate
and accessible accountability mechanisms through which, citizens can hold governments
and all other parties involved in the development cooperation accountable for
their actions.
Ensuring accountability in development cooperation is becoming increasingly challenging as development partnerships expand to new actors. Most Governments around the world have formally committed to international human rights obligations and human rights treaties, but this is not the case for commercial companies, which make up an increasing share of the channels and actors in development cooperation, including South-South Cooperation. Going forward, it will be increasingly important to address labour conditions, consumer rights, and environmental and social responsibilities for these actors.
Given China’s impressive development track-record and the fact that progress has not only been made in terms of addressing income-based poverty, but also in terms of meeting a diverse array of social goals, China is well positioned to share its development experience with other countries and contribute to inclusive development.
To give a few examples, in 2003, only 10% of the population in China had health insurance. By 2013, some 95% were covered, including most of the rural poor and the vulnerable urban groups. In 2009 only 240 million people were covered by pension schemes. By 2014, coverage was up to 842 million. Far-reaching social assistance programmes have been introduced such as Wubao for the elderly, people with disabilities and juveniles and Dibao to provide cash or in-kind support to poor households. Life expectancy at birth rose from 69 to 75 years from 1990 to 2012.
China has already taken on a leadership role in South-South Cooperation. The establishment of the South-South Climate Cooperation Fund and the Assistance Fund for South-South Cooperation, and the pledge to contribute $3.1 billion[1] and $3 billion[2] to these, respectively, demonstrates China’s proactive approach to South-South Cooperation and its commitment to the 2030 Agenda. The fact that China’s National Human Rights Action Plan, make commitments in terms of enhancing dialogue on human rights with other development countries, and to urge its overseas enterprises to abide by the laws of the countries in which they are stationed, and fulfil their social responsibilities, are welcome contributions to the global efforts on advancing human rights.
For the UN in China, supporting productive Chinese engagement in South-South Cooperation is a top priority. The UN strongly believes that effective Chinese engagement in international cooperation is mutually beneficial for China and the world. To facilitate China’s engagements on South-South Cooperation, the UN system in China has established the ‘China in the World Theme Group’, which has been instrumental for the UN to jointly exchange information and engage with external partners. This Theme Group has played a key role by highlighting prescient issues such as the China-Africa partnership in the 2030 agenda context; the UN’s involvement in the Belt & Road Initiative; G20 and global governance; and the impact of Chinese investment abroad. In addition, numerous UN agencies are working with their Chinese counterparts on a multitude of SSC initiatives. In 2016 alone, over two dozen activities in the form of workshops, conferences, partnership and research programs were conducted.
To conclude, I would like to stress that there is an increasing momentum for South-South cooperation to contribute to the realization of inclusive development and human rights. I believe that this Forum will open new avenues to strengthened South-South Cooperation and I look forward fruitful exchanges.
Thank you very much!
