A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Center for Economic and Social Rights

The Center for Economic and Social Rights (Centro de Derechos Economicos y Sociales -- CDES) is a Quito-based organization whose mission is to use human rights activism to confront basic development problems. Under this broad framework CDES focuses on issues of debt, multi-lateral banks, and free trade. CDES provides grassroots organizations with training and legal assistance that gives local communities in the Amazon new tools and opportunities to fortify their struggles.

As its name implies, CDES uses the concept of economic and social rights as a practical tool in the struggle for human rights in Ecuador. CDES emphasizes that the rights to health, food, housing, work, and education are as important and as legally supported as are the more commonly-advocated human rights such as freedom of speech and assembly.

The basic platform of CDES is that impoverishment and human suffering are not pre-ordained, but are primarily the result of bad social policies. It points out that poverty and hunger kill more people in Ecuador than all the death squads in Latin America combined. For example, reductions in Ecuadorian health service expenditures in the early 1990s contributed to a dismal state of children’s health. Compared with Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru -- neighboring countries not renowned for their affluence -- Ecuador has by far the highest rate of malnutrition among children under age five, and the lowest percentage of children served by nutritional programs.

CDES declares that there is no economic reason for the absence of basic health programs in Ecuador, and thus poor health conditions are clear evidence of a violation of international human rights norms. The health sector is just one of many areas where Ecuador falls short of international standards in protecting the economic and social rights its citizens.

The Amazon section of CDES works to prepare local organizations and communities to confront the oil industry, and to pressure governmental and corporate actors to ensure more participation and transparency in oil development policies. CDES organizes legal actions against the companies that pose the most danger to Amazon communities and the environment, and it works with grassroots organizations to promote alternatives to oil development.

CDES also puts pressure on the Ecuadorian government by working with the media, taking part in demonstrations, and organizing meetings between government officials and community leaders.

CDES -- Center for Economic and Social Rights
(593-22) 529 125, 563 517
fax 560 449
e-mail: cesr@accessinter.net