The GI-ESCR is proud to report the success of the Our Future is Public (#OFIP22) Conference. The Conference gathered social movements, trade unions and civil society organisations from all over the world in Santiago, Chile for a 4-day Conference aiming at developing strategies and narratives to strengthen public services for the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights and tackle the effects of climate change. The conference was attended by more than 400 people and many others participated virtually.

The result of which is the adoption of the Santiago Declaration which calls for universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society:

About the Conference:

This meeting follows years of growing mobilisation around the world, at the grassroot and at the national level, locally and across borders, in rural and urban areas. This led to the organisation of a series of groundbreaking events bringing together thousands of people online, and the adoption in 2021 of the Global Manifesto for Public Services.

 The first two days were devoted to sectoral meetings on care, economic justice and social protection health, education, energy, food and agriculture systems, housing, transportation, waste and water. The final two days brought together all movements and organisations participating in the conference for a collective discussion on cross-cutting themes including the climate emergency, gender equality, economic and tax justice, and democratic public ownership.

Convened by 50 organisations, GI-ESCR had a leading role in the organisation of the whole conference. In addition, GI-ESCR organised the following specific gathering:

sectoral meetings on health

Context  

Public healthcare services are vital to realise the human right to mental and physical health. However, commercial approaches to healthcare delivery, governance and financing are growing throughout the global health policy discourse. Commercialisation in health can be defined as the growth of a phenomenon where market mechanisms to the healthcare sector gain a private benefit, including health services, to make a profit.  

This threatens progress toward implementing the appropriate conditions and infrastructure necessary to realise the right to health. Civil society, unions and researchers advocating for the realisation of the right to health through strong, resilient public healthcare services are acting globally to illustrate the negative impacts of current upward trends leading to marketisation, financialisaton and commercialisation of healthcare and create strategies to invert them wherever possible.   

The problem is of sufficient importance that the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng, indicated that she is “considering an examination of the role played by the privatization of health-care services – including public-private partnerships, financial aid and philanthropy – in attaining universal health coverage” in a report setting out “strategic priorities of work” for her mandate.  

The movement for public health services and against commercialization of health has been growing and new evidence has emerged over recent years. Recent research and advocacy in countries such as Uganda, India, Kenya, Nigeria, the U.S. and Italy has shown how privatisation and commercialisation of healthcare provision can create health inequities and undermine human dignity and the right to health.  Sharp inequalities in distribution and allocation of COVID-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines have laid bare the shortcomings of relying on privatised knowledge systems for medical research and development. When linked to private interests and profit-mechanisms, the system of medical knowledge innovation and research can be detrimental to people's lives and communities in most parts of the world and also undermine the enjoyment of the right to health.   

Within the broader public services movement, key milestones have included the first global “Future is Public” conference held in Amsterdam 2019, which brought together over 400 participants to discuss strategies for putting the “public” back into public services and to build democratic public ownership of the economy. A further milestone was the October 2021 launch of the collective civil society Global Manifesto on Public Services, signed by over 195 organisations.  In this context, health activists and advocates also formed a Consortium against the Commercialisation of Healthcare based on the shared values of advancing the right to health for all and strengthening public financing, delivery and governance of healthcare.   

Convinced it is now time to further strengthen and solidify this global movement in support of strong public healthcare services, both within the arena of global health and reaching out across sectors to other constituencies and movements, such as food, environment, education, housing, and transport. We are all aware that, as stated in the 1978 Alma Ata Declaration and grounded in international human rights law, the right to health is closely intertwined with all other human rights and planetary rights. These two dimensions can no longer remain separated. To this end, civil society actors, trade unions, health activists and researchers met in Chile for this global conference and gathering, The Future is Public 2022, to participate in four days of sectoral and cross-sectoral convenings.   

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Tax cooperation and human rights - How to mobilize resources for a green and gender-inclusive transition in Latin America? Open Session

GI-ESCR organised an Open Session on Tax Cooperation and Human Rights, convinced that international human rights law could offer normative principles and standards that can guide fiscal reforms to finance the responses required to reduce current inequalities, boost international tax cooperation, and compensate for the loss and damage caused by environmental devastation, while respecting, protecting and fulfilling human right.

Governments around the world must strengthen policies to contain the impacts of the current crises, to address climate-induced devastating damage on the most vulnerable, whilst also delivering a resilient recovery that tackles structural inequalities. However, these policies require a great fiscal effort, and these resources are not currently available, especially for countries in the global south which struggle with a very limited fiscal space, low tax collection and high levels of debt.

OUTCome

The main outcome of the meeting is a commitment to continue building a movement for public futures. A public future means ensuring that everyone enjoys minimum essential levels of economic, social and cultural rights essential to dignified lives.

Read the final Declaration here

PRESS Coverage of the event

30 November 2022 - El Acento (República Dominicana) - Abogan porque países latinoamericanos trabajen juntos para implementar reformas fiscales progresivas.

22 November 2022 - El Mostrador (Chile) - "Nuestro futuro es público", la conferencia que realizará GI-ESCR

SPANISH

Nuestro futuro es público

La Conferencia #OFiP22 reunió a movimientos sociales, sindicatos y organizaciones de la sociedad civil de todo el mundo en Santiago de Chile para una conferencia de 4 días con el objetivo de desarrollar estrategias y narrativas para fortalecer los servicios públicos para la realización de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales y abordar los efectos de cambio climático. 
Los dos primeros días estuvieron dedicados a encuentros sectoriales sobre salud, educación, agricultura, justicia económica y protección social, energía, sistemas alimentarios, vivienda, transporte, residuos y agua; mientras que los dos últimos días reunieron a todos los movimientos y organizaciones participantes en la conferencia para una discusión colectiva sobre temas transversales que incluyen la emergencia climática, la igualdad de género, la justicia económica y fiscal y la propiedad democrática.

Cooperación fiscal y derechos humanos

¿Cómo movilizar recursos para una transición verde e inclusiva de género en América Latina?

Los gobiernos de todo el mundo deben fortalecer las políticas para contener los impactos de las crisis actuales, para abordar los daños devastadores inducidos por el clima en los más vulnerables, al mismo tiempo que brindan una recuperación resiliente que aborda las desigualdades estructurales. Sin embargo, estas políticas requieren un gran esfuerzo fiscal y estos recursos no están disponibles actualmente, especialmente para los países del sur global que luchan con un espacio fiscal muy limitado, baja recaudación de impuestos y altos niveles de deuda.

Si bien la tarea de reformas fiscales progresivas debe llevarse a cabo a nivel interno, también debe haber reformas al sistema tributario y financiero internacional, que actualmente facilita la evasión y elusión fiscal transnacional, reduciendo considerablemente los ingresos fiscales.

La cooperación internacional en materia tributaria es fundamental para lograr reformas que puedan atraer recursos de manera efectiva. La cooperación y coordinación a nivel regional e internacional es necesaria para gravar las corporaciones multinacionales y la riqueza de los más ricos que hoy explotan la competencia fiscal y los paraísos fiscales para evadir impuestos y ocultar sus activos a las autoridades fiscales.

Ante este enorme desafío, el derecho internacional de los derechos humanos podría ofrecer principios y estándares normativos que puedan guiar las reformas fiscales para financiar las respuestas necesarias para reducir las desigualdades actuales, impulsar la cooperación fiscal internacional y compensar las pérdidas y daños causados ​​por la devastación ambiental, respetando, protegiendo y realizando los derechos humanos