Economic Human Rights
{VIEWS} Tom Kertes
I believe that all people are born worthy of the right to be treated with dignity and respect. I also believe that human life is sacred. These three values – respect for all, dignity for all, and the sanctity of life – are expressed in human rights.
A society based on the belief that all persons are born individually and equally sacred would extend care and education to all people, of all ages – from birth to natural death, and would treat the work of child care as sacred work.
Our society is either being driven by different values or is failing to live up to its core values. Either way, it’s time for a new direction in child care. Child care in British Columbia and the rest of Canada should reflect human rights values, and should fulfill the promises we’ve made in human rights agreements and covenants on the rights of the person, including the special rights of the child.
There is no excuse for a country as rich as Canada to continue to fail to live up to our human rights promises, including the promise to ensure freedom from poverty for all. Every child has a right to an education and quality child care. Every child care worker has a right to a wage worthy of human dignity. Every person has a right to housing, rest and leisure, health and dental care, social security and adequate food.
Until these rights are fully realized for all, we will continue to fail to live up to the most profound promises that we’ve made to each other as a society. We should choose to either keep these promises, or at least be honest with ourselves about what we really value and rescind the promises from treaties, charters, covenants and law. Empty words must become promises fulfilled. Is human life sacred, or is consumption and concentration of power sacred? Do we value respect and dignity for all, or only for the rich and well-off?
If we believe that human life is sacred, then we should protect all persons from avoidable harm or early death and do what we can to ensure that the human potential of everyone is achieved. This means that the rights to freedom from oppression, freedom from harm, and freedom from mistreatment would be respected. It also requires that economic human rights be respected, and that we structure our social, political and economic systems in ways that respect the dignity and sacredness of human life.
The economic human rights expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights extend to all persons, and preclude the continuation of poverty for anyone, anywhere. The Declaration includes the economic human rights to:
- freedom from slavery or servitude
- protection of the family
- social security
- just working conditions
- protection against unemployment
- pay worthy of human dignity (a living wage)
- equal pay for equal work
- participation in organized labour
- rest and leisure
- periodic holidays with pay
- health care
- food, clothing, adequate housing
- special protection for parenthood and childhood
- free education
- full participation in cultural, civic, scientific and economic life
Human rights are not limited to those expressed by documents and treaties such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention of the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, or the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. These are expressions of human rights values, or expressions of our aspirations for how to achieve a society based on these values. These documents should not limit or be the sole focus of our human rights efforts, as human rights are first about values. Laws and policies should reflect our shared human rights values, and should not limit or constrain our efforts to create a society based on these values.
The values of respect for all, dignity for all, and sanctity of human life should compel us to work together to ensure that human potential is fully realized. This includes realizing human rights law, but does not start or stop there. Far more important is the realization of human rights values in daily life. We should create a culture based on these values, reflected in our cultural, social, economic and political life.
Part of this culture includes the cultural spaces of children, the cultural work of child care and education, the cultural life of families, and the intersection of children’s and family culture with the cultural, social, economic and political life of our society. Human rights values should be at the centre of all this.
Human rights values should be at the centre of children’s lives, at the centre of child care work, at the centre of cultural life of families, and at the centre of society. The values should also be supported and celebrated by all those with power and responsibility in the lives of children and families.
Canada is a rich country with no excuse for continued poverty within its borders. We have no excuse for children and families to experience the indignities of poverty within our country. We can create and sustain a social economy that respects human rights, and can do so in the lifetime of all children born in the first decade of the 21st century.
The generations of adults in power today have the means to end poverty and respect human rights for all. Our failure to ensure full participation and equal participation in the cultural, social, economic and political life of our society reflects a disconnect between our stated values and our will to realize the rhetoric of human rights and equity exposed by those in power. It is up to those who truly value human life as equally sacred – for all ages, in all places, at all times – to organize society to reflect our values. It up to the vast majority of people who love everyone equally and believe in justice for all to participate in decision making, ensuring that these values prevail.
Human rights extend to all persons, of all ages. While children may participate in the cultural, social, economic and political in ways that differ from that of adults, children are no less human, or less sacred, than are adults. We share a collective responsibility to support families and children, to respect the rights of children and to treat children with the dignity and respect to which each child is born entitled. When we have fully realized our values there will be no poverty, including an end to child poverty. Again, Canada is a country with the resources to make this a reality in this time. All that is required is the political will, which comes simply from people working together to realize our common values by making a moral commitment to ending poverty.
