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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Human Rights Reader 227</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">DISPARITY REDUCTION, NATIONAL BUDGETS AND HUMAN RIGHTS.</font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 2in"><br><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The availability and allocation of budgetary resources says a lot about whether, how, and to what extent a government is committed and determined to implement its disparity reduction and thus its human rights-focused policies.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><br><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">1. National budgets are a 'black and white' proof of whether governments are<br>putting-their-money-where-their-mouth-is. Through analyzing budgets, policies that promote equality between different income quintiles, between different ethnic groups, as well as between men and women can be identified. Therefore, for civil society to track the national budget is an essential tool in combating poverty, inequality and human rights (HR) violations.<br>
<br>2. There is a caveat though: Even if allocations are made in the national<br>budget, in many cases, allocated funds are not disbursed as planned for. Remember that national accounts are not audited immediately after the respective fiscal year ends. Therefore, 'budget accountability' has to be checked by HR activists throughout the year, because once accounts close the last day of each fiscal year nothing can be done anymore.<br>
<br>3. I am afraid effective disparity-reduction-policies --the way we want them to be singled-out and funded-- are not and may-not-even-be reflected in budgets any time soon (and, by extension, governments are not likely to make much progress in reducing disparities...). That is a whole additional challenge: to exert the needed pressures for clearly singled-out poverty reduction measures to make it into the national budget to begin with.<br>
<br>4. That is why assuring a broad participation of the country's representatives of the interests of people who happen to be poor and marginalized is so vital.<br><br></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">5. This marginalized group of society:</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">must be present in the diagnosis and analysis of the country's poverty and ill-being situation,</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">must check whether assistance and services are delivered where most needed,</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">must annually participate in the national budget preparation process to check for any omissions or misallocations, </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">must, throughout the year, be vigilant of misappropriations or the blocking of financial resources (making sure funds do arrive at the places where they are supposed to be available for spending), </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">must participate in the monitoring of program outcomes as budgeted, and<span style="COLOR: red"></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol"><span>·<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><font face="Times New Roman">must be vocal about all of the above and make 'noise' if they are of the opinion corrective actions are needed.<span style="COLOR: red"></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><br><font face="Times New Roman">6. This Reader thus intends to, just briefly, remind you that national budgets (including foreign aid allocations that pass through the budget) are indeed a powerful, underutilized, instrument to keep authorities HR-accountable!</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><font face="Times New Roman">Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City</font></span></p>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><a href="mailto:cschuftan@phmovement.org" target="_blank"><font face="Times New Roman" color="#0000ff">cschuftan@phmovement.org</font></a><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div>
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