Report: Conceptual Foundation of Post 2015 Development Framework

The Global Action Against Poverty-China (GCAP-China) released a report on April.3 commenting on the post-2015 development framework’s conceptual foundation, including vision, purpose, principle, standard.

The report is based on the results of national survey, communities visiting and consultation meeting, with an aim to facilitate Chinese civil society to participate in the United Naions system’s work on the post-2015 development framework, since the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be due in 2015.

Vision

• To eliminate poverty and injustice, protect human rights and the rule of law, and realize sustainable and inclusive development.

Purpose

• Eliminate poverty and narrow the gap between the rich and the poor

• Universal access to quality social security

• Achieve good governance based on the rule of law

• achieve environmentally sustainable

• Ensure the enabling environment and related rights for CSO and citizen’s actions.

• Establish democratic and inclusive global governance mechanisms

Principles

• Rights-based: 2015 Development Framework must be fully consistent with international human rights law and standards.

• Equity and equality: the framework must be committed to the abatement of inequality and discrimination within countries and between countries, and focus vulnerable groups which benefited the least under the existing Development Goals and give them most supports, especially women, peasants, people with disabilities, LGBT.

• Evidence-based: the framework must be established on the lessons of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and developed based on the experiences of the poor and marginalized groups.

• Accountability: for monitoring and adjustment of the framework, it is necessary to identify clearly the subjects, objects and means for accountability in both international and domestic levels. Poor people and NGOs should be involved.

Standards

• Universal access to quality social security for rural populations and domestic migrants, especially the health and pension insurance.

• Improve the quality of education, distribute educational resources equally, reform the education system and content (include multi-sex education) in order to protect the equal education rights of all children and youth, especially rural and migrant children, children with disabilities, LGBTteenagers and youth.

• Protect human rights, including freedom of expression, realizing freedom and openness of the internet; association right, demanding the workers’ right to organize their own trade unions; property rights, ensuring peasants, especially women’s full possessory rights of land; sexual rights, integrating sexual rights into development programs with institutional guarantee.

• Ensure development of multi-cultures, recognize the rural value, preserve and develop the local knowledge and culture.

• Government should sign more international human rights laws while respecting the human rights treaties which it already agreed with.

• Achieve the independence of the judiciary, the implementation of democracy at local level, to ensure that local elections open, transparent and effective.

• Remove the barriers of NGO’s registration as non-profit status and provide related support policies, as tax-free; develop CSOs in rural and remote places and those which works for most marginalized groups, such as rural LGBT.