FROM THE DESK OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Towards the Legal Empowerment of the Poor

Release Date: 04 July 2007

By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary-General

Dear e-CIVICUS Subscriber,  

Since early 2006, I have been serving on the Board of Advisors of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, one of Kofi Annan’s last initiatives before he left as Secretary General of the UN. It is a relatively new, global initiative that sets out to “make legal protection and economic opportunity not the privilege of few, but the right of all”. The Legal Empowerment Commission held various consultative workshops at the CIVICUS World Assembly as it reaches out to build a broad-based platform of advocacy and support.  

The gap between rich and poor is expanding at an alarming rate.  In poor and even in many middle-income countries, an empowered elite captures the benefits of globalisation and economic growth while the majority of the population lack basic rights and opportunities. In fact, over three billion people around the world live and work in a shadow economy, often without even a birth certificate or other legal document that recognises their existence.

For some, legal empowerment is fundamentally a human rights issue. Without legal rights or documents to their homes and other property, people live in fear of forced eviction – in just one example, hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans lost their shelter and businesses when the government decided to bulldoze their settlements  in a “clean up” operation in 2005. When I recently visited Zimbabwe together with Clare Doube, CIVICUS Civil Society Watch Manager, to join a “prayer meeting” against the growing repression of civil society and democracy, we heard sad stories about the impact of these actions.  Without access to a justice system that protects them, the poor experience the law as the hard edge of state authority that shakes them down.  

Yet legal empowerment is also about opportunity: the poor can and do generate income, and are incredibly resourceful and ingenious in scratching out a living. In cities and villages around the developing world, they sell goods and services in the streets and organise markets that governments refuse to recognise.  But without deeds, contracts and permits, they cannot access the legal business protections that entrepreneurs in the developed world take for granted – they can’t get loans, enforce contracts, or expand beyond a personal network of familiar customers and partners. They are locked out of economic opportunity in their own countries and in the global marketplace.

The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor is co-chaired by Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State, and Hernando de Soto , the Peruvian economist and author of ‘The Mystery of Capital’.  While Hernando’s work evokes mixed reactions among civil society activists, I strongly believe the work of this commission will benefit from the voice and participation of a broad spectrum of civil society. Hernando has been working on this issue since the 1980s, and his researchers have spent years studying the shadow economy in countries like Egypt , Philippines , Tanzania , Mexico and Guatemala . What they have found is that for the overwhelming majority of people in these countries, bureaucratic red tape and high fees make it difficult, and in many cases virtually impossible, to register even a small business or a piece of land.

For example, let’s say you have a home. You want to sell it. You go down to the local registry office with whatever papers you have, in the hopes of getting a deed. Right at the entrance, there is a bureaucrat that you have to bribe. Then you get inside an office and you bribe the person there for a form – a form you can’t read because you’ve never gone to school. And you repeat this procedure 100 times – at a cost of sometimes the equivalent of one year’s income. 

So instead, the poor draft their own papers and deeds, and make their own rules when they want to buy or sell property, do business, or settle a dispute.  However, authorities don’t recognise these informal papers and rules, and so the poor are constantly at risk of being victimised by powerful groups who control land and property, business, and access to government.

The idea behind the Commission is that each nation should have one legal system that everybody recognises and obeys, one system that is equally accessible to everyone – regardless of income, gender or race.

In 2005, Norway led a group of developed and developing countries in launching Legal Empowerment, which is hosted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Commission itself is made up of various political leaders from around the world– from Gordon Brown and Mary Robinson to Benjamin Mkapa and Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Understandably, at the outset, some NGOs questioned the credibility of an anti-poverty initiative made up of high-level policymakers, and the jury is still out about how bold the recommendations of the Commission might be and about the possibilities of national governments being encouraged to implement them. As we all know, the compliance deficit in national and global governance is a sad reality especially in the face of 50 000 women, men and children dying in the world every single day from preventable causes as a result of poverty-associated reasons.

Still, it is policymakers who are in a position to push through reforms and programs that would empower the poor: extending secure land and property rights, making it easier for people hawking on city streets or working in their homes to get licenses, and creating public education campaigns that inform the poor of their legal rights. 

However, government leaders will only respond to real incentives and real demands. Citizens groups must organise around this agenda and demand a voice in the process. The Board of Advisors that I sit on was set up to make sure that civil society and grassroots groups have a central role in setting the Legal Empowerment agenda.

The Huairou Commission - a global network of grassroots women – is bringing grassroots women to the Commission’s national consultations now taking place in about 20 countries in Africa , South and East Asia , Latin America and Eastern Europe . Another important partner is Sheela Patel of Slum Dwellers International, who has helped relocate more than 23,000 households in Mumbai by organising communities to present their demands directly to state and municipal governments.

As you may remember, I returned from the G8 summit in Germany being disappointed and disheartened. For, even after all the campaigning work of the Global Call to Action against Poverty (www.whiteband.org) the already modest commitments made in Gleneagles in 2005, had been weakened rather than boosted. And so, once more the G8 leaders disregarded not only the poor but also their own citizens who, by rallying, petitioning etc, made it known they wanted global poverty to be eradicated. It shows how paper promises do not materialise for the poor if elites choose not to. Thus it underlines the importance and the relevance of the commission’s work in freeing the poor of the whims of the elites.   

When I returned from exile in 1990 to my native South Africa , after spending a year as an ANC volunteer, I opted not to go into government. In the course of my year as a volunteer I became acutely aware that even though the transition in South Africa was going to deliver important positive changes for the poor e.g. by progressive legislation, many of the poor would not be able to access any of these changes as a result of educational disenfranchisement. My longstanding background in adult literacy made me even more concerned. For, while these laws are there to be the friends of the poor, the language in which they are drafted and implemented is hostile to these very same poor. Hence, dealing with state institutions would be terrifying for many poor men and women. This lack of access to law, to rights, is what the Commission aims to set straight. Trying as it may sound; it could be quite revolutionary if laws were made more accessible to the poor both by amending the language of the statute books and by otherwise enabling men and women to access justice.

Since the empowerment of the poor is key to the work of this United Nations Commission, many social movements have natural links to the Legal Empowerment agenda. Consequently, indirectly many of you might already be involved in parts of commission’s agenda – particularly those of you working on labour rights, access to justice, land right, governance and human rights. To strengthen both your efforts as well as those of the commission, I encourage you to learn more about Legal Empowerment as I invite you to help shape the outcomes of this United Nations Commission by getting involved directly. To start engaging, please visit www.undp.org/legalempowerment.

Wherever this article finds you, I hope you do not have legal impediments standing between you and accessing your basic human rights. Sadly, I suspect some of you face this reality and most of you know people who are struggling against a barrage of legal realities that impact on their chances to live in dignity. Let us join in solidarity to overcome these barriers!

Warmest regards,

Kumi Naidoo

Below you will find all previous columns published. 

• Continuity and Change: The position of CIVICUS' Secretary General

• Continuity with change: Governance change at CIVICUS

• From a whisper to a whimper: Reflections on the on the G8 Summit

• Will the G8 deliver according to its broken promises?

• CIVICUS World Assembly need you to set the agenda 

• "We' re Living in a World of Global Economic Appartheid" 

• Renewed dedication to the Call for Poverty Eradication and Equality  

• Wolfowitz must resign to regain World Bank's credibility  

• Criminalising Human Rights in Zimbabwe

• Who's accounatability to who and why?

• Civil society and the progress of the feminist movement in transitional democracy

• The role of civil society organisations in promoting corporate citizenship

• Civil society faces increasing challenges in Zimbabwe

• The road to Accra: Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness

• CIVICUS Youth Assembly to urge for ‘Accountability to Future Generations’

• International Women’s Day, 8 March 2007: Men will never be free until women enjoy full gender equality

• The World Economic Forum is too important to be left to economists alone

• From Nairobi to Davos: Reflections on the World Social Forum and World Economic Forum

• The role of civil society organisations in managing for development results

• World Social Forum 2007: Another World is Possible for Africa

• The importance of civil society in the year 2006

• International Advocacy NGO Accountability Charter: Walking the talk

• Human Rights Day: Righting the Wrongs

• Sharing member impressions and why civil society should be part of CIVICUS’ alliance

• 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence

• CIVICUS strategic planning takes centre stage

• Reflections on the CIVICUS Civil Society Index country reports

• Civil society and the challenge of Regional Integration in the Pacific

• Over 20 Million People 'STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY' to Set New Guinness World Record

• People created poverty. Only people can eradicate it." World-wide commemoration of October 17: International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

• Campaigning Works!

• If only civil society was taken seriously: Reflections on the fifth anniversary of the tragedy of 11 September 2001

• Help set a Guinness world record by standing up to poverty

• Civil society takes centre stage at the AIDS Conference

• Can we reform the International Finance Institutions?

• Article on the Doha collapse

• Civil Society and the Middle East Conflict

• Reflections of a Meeting with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin

• You can participate in the CIVICUS World Assembly even if you are not going to be there in person

• Can Civil Society make a difference in Iraq?

• The Ethics of Cherry Picking: The dilemma of where you live, work and play!!!

• Former CIVICUS Board Member passes away

• Reflections on a visit to prison

• The struggle for justice is a marathon not a sprint: A personal reflection

• Can Civil Society make 2006 a year of more and better coherence, coordination and communication?

• What 2005 means for civil society?

• Argentina: Thriving without the IMF

• Can legal frameworks strengthen civil society? Is the time right for a Campaign for Civil Society Rights?

• Why trade justice matters to you

• December 2005: Determined, Dedicated and Diverse Dimensions to Direct Action For Justice, Human Rights and Equality

• Reflections on the United Nations Summit

• Civil society gears up for the UN World Summit

• Reflections on the G8 Summit

• Nelson Mandela: Inspiring civil society efforts to create a just world

• Children, youth and the struggle for a just world

• So we think democracy is growing?: Rethinking social exclusion

• You can make difference on ‘Whiteband Day’ - 1 July 2005

• CSW Monthly Bulletin provides a global forum to protect the rights of civil society

• What does democracy really mean today

• The absence of democracy at the World Bank

• Grassroots activism: ordinary people making an extraordinary difference

• Madrid, Manhattan, Manica and Musina: Civic activism driving the agenda for social and political justice

• On International Women's Day civil society wonders if this is Beijing Plus Ten or Beijing Minus Ten

• Internal governance: Responding to the challenge of civil society legitimacy, accountability and transparency

• Poverty or social exclusion - What unites civil society in the North and South?

• Should civil society engage with governing institutions even when they have deep democratic deficits?

• One month gone, eleven to go: Is 2005 the year civil society focuses on its common shared values and agrees to disagree on strategy and tactics?

• The beginnings of the biggest ever mobilisation against poverty launched at the World Social Forum

• Civil Society gears up for a major global campaign against poverty

• What the Tsunami Tragedy means for Civil Society.

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