Basic legal rights to identity, work and property can break poverty cycle
Washington – What would you call a group of people without legal identity, title to their homes, licenses to conduct business, ownership of their property, records of their work history, or even the ability to appear in court?
You would call them poor.
In the past, efforts to advance the rule of law and reduce global poverty have been seen as equally laudable but largely separate endeavors. No longer.
A report by the independent Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, co-chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and economist Hernando de Soto concludes the basic protection and services of the legal system are essential for breaking the cycle of poverty and powerlessness for as many as 4 billion of the world’s population.
“The rule of law is not merely an adornment to development; it is a vital source of progress,” the commission’s June report declares. “However, most poor people do not live under the shelter of the law and are far from the law’s protection and the opportunities it affords.”
COMMISSION CONSULTATIONS
Along with its co-chairs, the commission comprises a panel of senior government officials and former heads of state chosen for their real-world experience in the complexities of policymaking.
“The commission undertook an extensive national consultative process in 22 countries,” Executive Director Naresh Singh told America.gov. “We also recruited local experts to write papers that were examined by local focus groups — leading up to the national conferences.”
In addition, the commission created an advisory board comprising major regional development banks and civil-society organizations.
“The political visibility of the commission’s leadership was very empowering for these organizations,” Singh said.
Although the commission will cease formal operations soon, the United Nations Development Programme will continue its work, and the World Bank has agreed to establish a legal empowerment trust fund.
ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Many of the commission’s findings built on de Soto’s pioneering research into the nature of the “informal economy” in his native Peru and other developing nations.
“At its core, the legal-empowerment agenda is about unlocking human potential,” writes commission member Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian minister of foreign affairs.
The commission’s recommendations fall into four categories, or pillars: access to justice, property rights, labor rights and business rights. Its findings also emphasize the importance of legal empowerment for women.
“Poor women often suffer the worst forms of discrimination in property law,” writes commissioner Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, in an op-ed in the Madrid, Spain, newspaper El Pais.
The first pillar — access to justice — addresses several issues, including the need for legal registration, without fees, because approximately 40 percent of all children in developing countries are not registered at birth. That omission can deprive them of education and medical care.
Not only can the poor not afford lawyers or court fees, but in many instances, they often do not even speak the language in which the judicial system operates, according to the commission.
Bureaucracy, too, is an impediment. In India, more than 20 million civil cases are pending before the courts. The average Philippine judge has a backlog of almost 1,500 cases.
The commission calls for simplification of the legal system, stronger legal aid programs and expanded alternative dispute-resolution methods.
PROPERTY, WORK, BUSINESS
Property rights, the second pillar, allow the poor to protect and leverage their assets under the law.
“Poor people already have agreements among themselves,” says de Soto. “What you have to do is professionally standardize these contracts and create one legal system that everyone recognizes and respects.”
Surveys in Russia and Eastern Europe, for example, have found that businesses that believe their property rights are secure reinvest as much as 40 percent more of their income than those that do not, according to the commission.
Rural lands that received legal titles in Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand increased in value from 40 percent to more than 80 percent.
The third pillar, labor rights, covers nearly all of the world’s 500 million working poor, who constitute more than half of all employment in developing nations. They spend their lives in the unorganized informal sector without the basic protections of old-age pensions, accident or medical insurance.
The commission recognizes that it faces a balancing act in eliminating the negative aspects of exploitation while “ensuring that opportunities for livelihood and entrepreneurship are not destroyed.”
The fourth pillar of business rights addresses the barriers to starting or running a legal business.
In Egypt, for example, starting a bakery takes an average of 500 days, adherence to 315 laws and approvals of 29 agencies. A study of 12 Latin American countries found that only 8 percent of enterprises are registered legally; 23 million operate informally.
Without the ability to gain bank loans or enforce contracts, these informal businesses cannot expand beyond a network of familiar customers and partners, much less participate in the global economy.
Although the challenges are daunting, the commission concludes that “Making poverty history cannot be accomplished through legal empowerment alone, but it is hard to see how it can be done without it.”
For more information, see the Web site of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor.
Source: America.gov.
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