Liaison Newsletter > LIAISON Vol. 3/4, No. 7, May/July 2000

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UNA-Canada Takes Part in the Launch of the Human Development Report 2000
By Elliott Spagat, UNA-Canada Communications Officer

The 2000 edition of the Human Development Report, which examines the mutually reinforcing links between human rights and human development, was released in Ottawa on Thursday, June 29.

The 11th edition of the annual Human Development Report, commissioned by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), provides a thought provoking analysis of two interrelated and intertwined issues. Human rights and human development share the common goal of securing freedom, well-being and dignity for every human being. The Human Development Report 2000

demands the eradication of poverty not just as a development goal, but as a central challenge for human rights. It explores the new rights agenda for the 21st century and proposes bold new approaches to political and economic governance that deliver social justice.

The Human Development Report 2000 includes and updates the widely respected Human Development Indicators that compare the relative levels of human development in 174 countries, and presents data tables on various aspects of human development (including a fairly new poverty index). In previous years Canada has regularly stood at or near the top of the HDI.

The United Nations Association in Canada, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and UNDP organized the Canadian launch of the Report.

After a brief welcome and introduction by Harry Qualman, Executive Director of UNA-Canada, Dr. Moustapha Soumaré, Head of the Directorate and Special Assistant to the Director for UNDP/Africa in New York, spoke on behalf of UNDP to officially launch the Report in Canada. His remarks were followed by Charles Bassett, Senior Vice-President of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and by Warren Allmand, President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. Maureen O’Neill, President of IDRC, moderated the panel.

In his remarks, Dr. Soumaré gave an overview of the progress and setbacks in human rights and how they relate to human development. Some of the freedoms he discussed included freedom from discrimination, freedom from want, freedom from injustice, as well as other basic freedoms. He emphasized that while once again Canada ranked high on the Human Development Index (HDI), it’s ranking on the Human Poverty Index 2 (HPI-2) dropped, showing that there is still a lot of work for Canada to do in the various areas of development and human rights.

For the seventh year in a row, Canada has placed first on the Human Development Index that captures the average progress of a nation’s human development, by reflecting achievements in longevity, knowledge and standard of living.

However, Canada ranks 11th out of 18 industrialized countries on the Human Poverty Index-2, this is because although only 0.8% of the labour force is long-term unemployed, nearly one in ten people (9.2%) born today are not expected to survive to age 60. One adult out of six is functionally illiterate and 10.6% of the population live below the poverty line. This represents a drop of three rankings from the 1998 and 1999 reports. So, while Canada has a high standard of development (the HDI does not represent the standard of living), there is still much room for improvement.

In terms of human rights, Canada is doing well. It has ratified all six major international human rights instruments consisting of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1965); International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (1966); International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966); Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979); Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).

Nevertheless, Canada has only ratified four of the eight fundamental conventions. It has signed the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize Convention (1948); Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (1975); Equal Remuneration Convention (1951); and the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (1958). It has not signed and ratified the Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention (1949); Forced Labour Convention (1930); Minimum Age Convention; or the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (1999).

Additional information about the Report is available on the UNDP website at http://www.undp.org.

The Report is available for sale through UNA-Canada. The English edition sells for $31.95 plus shipping and tax, and the French is available for $42.95 plus shipping and tax. Call (613) 232-5751 or email info@unac.org for more information.